Anchor My Ship
by LastHase
Summary: While the girls all go off to college, Spencer Hastings finds herself dorming with Paige McCullers. Their friendship grows as they open up to each other during their study sessions and morning runs. Come time to go home for the holidays, Spencer convinces Paige to go to Rosewood with her when she realizes the girl would be staying on campus alone. Eventual Paily. No A
1. Spidey Senses

"Spencer, I can still talk to my client that works at UPenn to get you in next semester." Said Peter Hastings. He hasn't quite yet warmed up to the idea of his little girl going anywhere but the university all Hastings are obligated to go to. Spencer would like to believe that her father wants her to go to UPenn because of the closeness to home, though she doubts that even crossed his mind.

The slender beauty glances back at her father who's carrying a couple boxes like herself with an exasperated look. "Dad, I get that you don't want me going anywhere besides your precious UPenn, but this is where I'm going. You're one of the only fathers who complains that their daughter is going to Stanford." She sets the boxes down to open the door to the room she'll be spending a whole lot of time in for the next four years of her life.

"Honey, you know we're proud of you. Don't pay attention to your father and his stubbornness." Veronica steps into the room behind her daughter and places the boxes she was carrying by the desk that appears unclaimed.

"Looks like you're all moved in, kiddo. Need us for anything else?" He says as he too puts the boxes down. Then he starts scanning the half of the room that's occupied by the other girls things.

Spencer shakes her head as she does the same as her father.

"I still can't believe your roommate settled in before we even got here." Peter states.

"Me neither, I thought for sure ten o'clock would be early enough." The youngest Hastings looked to her mom and dad. "You two should go before she gets here." Peter nods as Veronica pulls Spencer for a hug.

"Don't hesitate to call for anything Spencer, I'm serious." She smiles and pulls her mom out to arms length. "I know, mom. Now don't start crying because then neither of us will be able to stop."

Peter gives his daughter a hug and kisses the top of her head. "I love you, sweetheart. Be good. Just remember that I may be on the opposite end of the country, but I can still find out what you're doing here." He smiles down at her as she rolls her eyes at him and walks them to the door.

"Oh how could I forget?" She leans on the door frame. "I love you both. Let me know when you land." Her mother grabs her hand one last time before she reluctantly squeezes lightly then lets go and walks away glossy-eyed.

When she shuts the door she presses her back up against it and takes a deep breath. _Come on Spencer, don't even start._ _You have a lot of unpacking to do._ She lets out the breath she was holding and uses the opportunity to take in the room in its entirety. It's not that big, but really what dorm room is? Although it does seem to be bigger than majority of the other ones she's seen on the many tours of other colleges.

Standing in the doorway, the side her roommate chose was to the right so by default hers was the left. Each side had the same thing; a bunk bed with one bed on top and a desk on the bottom and a dresser. The only difference was the placement of the dresser. Spencer's was up against the wall with the door and her roommates was in between their bunk beds as a result of the bathroom being on their right side. Her side also had the TV that was mounted above her dresser. The girls took their own mini fridges that were placed under their desk. Overall it was a very resourceful layout.

She hoped that eventually she'd get close enough to the other girl to convince her they should get one bunk bed to allow room for a couch but the figured that was a ways away. However she was psyched to get a top bunk all to herself. Her and her sister had one when she was little but Melissa wanted the top and like when it came to everything else Melissa got what she wanted.

After she was done soaking up the room she began opening a box and placing its contents in their respective place. Thinking it would be best to just get done putting her clothes away, that's what she started with.

It took her about two and a half hours to get just about all her things unpacked and set up. She opened the last box that contained all her pictures in it. As she put each picture in its respective spot she flashed back to the time the photo was taken. The final frame in the box displayed a picture of herself and her three best friends on the day of their graduation.

She knows she's silly for missing them when she just saw them all yesterday though she still can't help the lump in her throat when she realizes she won't see them again until at least Thanksgiving break. That's barely three months away but she hasn't gone day without seeing them since ninth grade.

Spencer met her best friends when she first started high school; Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields. The three girls had all been best friends since kindergarten before Spencer met them after she came from the private school her parents had her in up until then. She had always been jealous of their closeness regardless of the fact that they never left Spencer out. Still she wanted to find someone to feel as close to as they felt to each other.

Just as she placed the picture frame on her desk she heard someone fiddling with the door before opening it and walking in. She didn't really know how to go about introducing herself and if she were being honest, this was the very second she had been dreading since she got here. In an effort to look busier than she actually was she quickly messed up her things on her desk then began trying to organize them back to their original position. While she was doing so she heard a gasp come from the doorway and looked over to see the girl she's been waiting to meet struggling to catch the cup she had been balancing on top of the one she had been holding. Spencer was surprised to see that the girl's efforts had been successful.

"You scared the shit out of me. I didn't think I'd have a roommate for another couple hours." The Hastings smiled at the clearly still flustered girl in front of her. While chuckling she says "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I've been here for just over three hours though. My parents and I were surprised someone showed up before us."

The girl walks over to her and sets down one of the cups on Spencer's desk with a couple packets of sugar and tiny containers of cream. "Got it just in case. You're lucky I have ninja reflexes though." She lets out a small laugh and reaches out her hand towards Spencer. It takes her a few seconds to register what it is the girls doing but recovers and shakes her hand while laughing at her corniness. "Thanks. But if that's so, wouldn't you have known I was here in the first place?" The slightly taller girl shakes her head and chuckles. "I said I have ninja reflexes, not Spidey sense." "Touché." _This girl's good._

Spencer uses their close proximity to get a good look at the girl's face. She has huge chocolate brown eyes with a pretty adorable button nose and decently full lips. As she scans further down she notices the girl is wearing a jean jacket with sweatshirt sleeves and a hoodie. Underneath the jacket she has a navy blue v-neck and khakis on with brown vans. She thinks it's safe to say this girl's pretty athletic when you pair her slim physique with the grip she currently has on Spencer's hand. Em will be so jealous when she sees this girl is my roommate.

"Am I not allowed to know my roommates name?" Spencer snaps out of her thoughts and brings her eyes up to see the girl smirk and raise her eyebrow. She blushes and finally removes her hand from the girls grasp "Sorry, I may have zoned out. Spencer Hastings." The other girl chuckles and nods. "I noticed, Spencer Hastings. I'm Paige McCullers. That is in case you missed my introduction while you were "zoned out"." Putting a sarcastic tone on the last two words.

Spencer shies away from her gaze while grabbing the cup on her desk and sipping from it. "You have no idea how badly I needed this coffee." Paige gives her a small smile and walks over to sit down on her chair at the desk. "Do you plan on going to freshman orientation?" Spencer turns to give her a puzzled look. "Doesn't every freshman?"

The nonchalant girl laughs in disbelief. "Not really, but I assume you are." This causes Spencer to raise her eyebrow challengingly at her roommate. "You aren't?" Paige raises her hands in mock surrender. "I was just seeing if you were, because if you weren't then I wouldn't either. It's just boring exercises to get to know each other after a tour of the campus. But I guess I have to if I don't want my new roomie to murder me with that death glare." The slightly more slender girl shakes her head and smirks a little. "I didn't mean to threaten you, I just don't want my roommate to be a slacker." "Yes, mam." Paige smiles and looks at her watch.

"We have about three hours till then. Want to walk around the neighborhood?" She looks up at Spencer. "I mean if you're all set with unpacking and stuff." Then looks over at the girls desk that's currently in shambles. "I never would've pegged you for a messy worker." This makes Spencer blush and glance back at her desk. _Wow, it is pretty bad. _"Yea I guess this whole moving thing has me all over the place. I promise I'm not usually this disorganized."

She looks over to catch another smirk across Paige's face. "No problem, I'm messy anyway." Spencer's eyes widen in horror which causes the other girl to laugh. "I'm kidding. Guess I can consider that payback for nearly giving me a heart attack." The shorter brunette lets out a sigh of relief. "That wasn't funny. It's not my fault you just assumed no one else was in here."

Paige shakes her head with a smile as she goes to open the door for Spencer. "Come on, I know an awesome pizza place not too far off campus." "Thank god. The last time I ate was six this morning and it was gross airplane food. My parents wanted to get food once we got off the plane but I was too focussed on getting to my dorm early enough to pick my side of the room." "How'd that work out for you?" Paige smiles at the girl and waits patiently for her to exit.

Spence grabs her clutch and walks out the door mumbling a thank you as she passes the girl holding the door. "Oh and by the way I was only half kidding. Just letting you know in advance that I apologize if you ever trip over my clothes in your way to the bathroom." The girl in front stops dead in her tracks and turns around with an expression much like the one plastered on her face not too long ago. Paige chuckles and motions for her to keep walking. "You've been warned."


	2. Grated Cheese, Pepper Flakes, and a Fork

**Thanks for all the awesome encouragement. Comment with anything you'd like to see. I have a pretty good idea of where I want this to go but I'm pretty much just going along with where it takes me until I get there. I hope I'm doing this justice. It's my first fanfic and I'm doing everything from my phone so bare with me.**

"That's where I got the coffees today." Paige points towards a quaint café across the street and smiles. "It reminds me of The Brew from my hometown." She looks over at Paige as they walk in sync. "How do you know so many places around here?"

She shrugs her shoulder a little. "I got done unpacking around seven this morning so I just spent some time walking in the neighborhood."

Spencer stares at the girl dumbfounded. "Are you serious?"

Paige starts laughing almost hysterically. "No. My dad's mom lives in Portola Valley about ten minutes from here and I used to stay with her during summer break."

Spencer shakes her head and pushes Paige's shoulder while laughing along lightly.

"This is it." The taller girl stops and walks to the door to hold it open for the shorter one. Hastings examines the pizza shop before walking in and shuffling to the side to allow Paige to take the lead.

The girl just sits in a booth and Spencer takes that as a cue to follow suit. "Are you sure we can just sit down?" Paige chuckles and nods. "Pretty sure. But if they ask I'll just tell them you said it was okay."

The other girl rolls her eyes and then looks around the place again. It looked like a decent place, definitely not upscale and pretty plain. There was this mural of what looked like Greek mythology or something along the lines of that which took up the top two _thirds_ of each wall. The tables were white and a lot of the edges were scrapped up and you could see what looked to be cork behind the paint. The booth itself was red and pretty worn out but they were comfy all the same.

"If you don't like the place, we can go somewhere else." Paige half smiles while waiting for a response. Spencer shakes her head and gives Paige an apologetic smile. "No, no. I'm just checking out the place. I've never been to one of these places. It's a lot homier than the restaurants I'm used to." Paige raises her eyebrow and smiles amusingly at the girl sitting across from her. "Homier?"

Spencer chuckles nervously once she realizes how that sounded. "Yea, I mean restaurants back at home are usually filled with modern crap and snobby people eating the healthiest food while trying to one-up each other. It's just nice for a change."

The other girl nods at her lightly with the same amused smirk. "I lived in a place like that once. Not for long though and I was pretty young." She looks up like she's trying to remember the name. "Roseville, maybe? I don't know. All I can remember are the kids I went to school with were pretty stuck up for being in the second grade." It takes Spencer a second to register what Paige had just said._ She couldn't have. _"Rosewood?" The other girls face jolted towards Spencer's. "That's it. How'd you know?" To

"I've lived there my whole life." Paige looks to her in disbelief. "You're lying." Spencer shakes her head and takes out her phone to pull up a picture. She gets to the one she wants and places it on the table in front of Paige. The girl takes the phone and looks at the photo. It's of Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Aria standing in front of the high school.

"I guess you're not." As she checks out the picture her eyebrows furrow. "What's wrong?" Spencer inquires.

"The blonde looks familiar. Is her name Alison?" She looks up to Spencer.

"Uh. No. Hanna. But I do know an Alison that she gets confused with a lot. I mean, I never met her but the girls spoke about her a bunch of times." Paige nods slowly and gives the girl a small smile. "I didn't think you'd be friends with her." _What is she talking about?_ "What do you mean?"

"If that Alison girl is the same one I remember, she just doesn't seem like someone you'd befriend." She says while shrugging and then shimmies out of her seat. "What do you like on your pizza?"

_I wonder what she meant by that._ "Doesn't matter. I'll eat anything." Paige gives her a tight nod as she turns to go up to the counter.

As Spencer waits for her roommate to come back she ponders on what she could've been meaning when she said "she just doesn't seem like someone you'd befriend". Could it be her trying to say Alison was too popular for Spencer to be friends with? _No. It couldn't be. She wouldn't know Alison was popular, she only know her in the second grade. Plus, this girl seems too nice for something like that._ The girl doesn't know why her new acquaintance's words bothered her. Maybe it wasn't so much her words as it was how her whole demeanor changed once Alison came up. She suddenly wishes that she could go back and actually listen to all of the obnoxious stories her three best friends used to always talk about that involved Alison.

Spencer never knew Alison personally, but her friends would constantly try to tell her things she didn't really care to know about the girl. All she had gotten from the conversations were that she was a major bitch who treated all three of them pretty badly and she went away the summer going into freshman year and never came back.

"I went with just cheese, figured it was the safest bet." Paige says as she sits back down in her booth. "I don't mean to pry but what did you mean by what you said about Alison?" The girl shies away from Spencer's intense stare but replies. "Just that you seem too nice to have a friend like her. Unless she's changed since I knew her. I'm sorry, it wasn't really fair of me to say something like that."

Spencer shakes her head. "There's no need to apologize. She wasn't my friend, she moved before I got to know her. Just my friends were sort of close to her. If you could even call it that." The slightly lighter eyed girl keeps her gaze on the chocolate eyed one hoping to gauge some type of response. "She couldn't have been too bad in the second grade." Paige scoffs. "I knew her long after that but believe me, she wasn't too nice in the second grade either."

"How'd you know her afterwards?" "Long story." "Well I've got time. Especially since we're sort of stuck with each other for a few more years." Spencer gives Paige a small smile to try and lighten up the mood. Which seems to work since Paige smiles back before explaining. "We went to this camp in Philadelphia together during the summer going into freshman year." Spencer raises her eyebrows a tiny bit and nods as if to tell her to continue. "She had caught this girl and I kissing one night. Then told everyone at the camp including one of the supervisors who knew my parents. I'm sure you can guess what happened next." Paige smiles but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I guess I should thank her though, I'm sure it would've been a lot harder telling them on my own time."

Spencer doesn't really know what to say. I mean what could she say to that? "Would you stop looking at me like that? I can practically feel the pity radiating off of you." Spencer lets out a small laugh that sounds more like an aggressive exhale and shakes her head lightly. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe someone would actually do that. Well I guess seeing as it's Alison, I can. The girls had some equally messed up stories."

Out of the corner of her eye she can see someone approaching the table with a big pan. It's a girl that looks to be Spencer and Paige's age with glasses and a hat with the pizza shop's logo on it. Underneath Spencer can see the girls light brown hair that's tied up in a pony tail. She has light eyes with a pretty average nose and full lips. Overall she's a very attractive girl.

"You ladies need anything else?" The girl looks to Spencer and Paige with a smile.

"I'll have a Mountain Dew, thanks." Paige says as she returns the smile then looks over at the girl across the table. "You, lady?" Spencer laughs and turns to the worker. "Just a water for me, please." The girl nods and smiles at Paige one more time before turning and walking to the kitchen.

"So if you grew up in Rosewood, why don't you know Alison?" "I was in private school up until high school. Did you go to school in Philadelphia after Rosewood?" Paige shakes her head and starts fiddling with the napkin holder.

"No. I went to a bunch of other schools before I got to Philadelphia. Mostly in Pennsylvania though. My mom and I move around a lot." She smiles and glances up at Spencer. "I could probably tell you every non-snobby pizza joint in eastern Pennsylvania. Not really familiar with the snobby ones though. They always grossed me out."

Spencer raises her eyebrows in amusement and laughs. "Grossed you out?" Paige nods and laughs along. "Yea, I can't stand being in a room full of people who think they're better than everyone else. I practically choke on the arrogance in the air."

Spencer glances over towards the kitchen doors just in time to see the light eyed girl come through them with their drinks in her hands. Once the girl makes her way to the table she sets each down in front of its respective owner.

"You two good for now?" Paige and Spencer both nod. "Alright, well my name is Alyssa. Just holler for me if you need anything. Enjoy." Alyssa brushes her hand down Paige's shoulder and winks before going back into the kitchen.

Spencer looks to Paige just in time to see her blush faintly and crack a smile. "Looks like someone has an admirer." Spencer teases as she reaches for her water and sips from the straw.

Paige just shakes her head and grabs a slice of pizza. She scans the table before a disappointed look appears on her face.

"What's wrong?" Spence asks while grabbing one too.

"Forgot to ask for a fork and knife. Plus they're out of the pepper flakes." She sits back dejectedly.

"Just holler for your girl to come here and ask her to get you it. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Paige squints her eyes at the girl across from her and crosses her arms.

Spencer chews the bite she just took before opening her mouth. "Alyssa!" Paige's eyes widen and she blushes again before giving Spencer a death glare much like the one Spencer gave her a an hour or two ago.

"What's up?" Alyssa looks to the girls, smiling once her eyes meet Paige's.

"My friend here needs something." Spencer quips causing Paige to glance at her.

"Um yea. Can I just get a fork and knife please?" She smiles up at the waitress. "Oh and some pepper flakes if you have any? Sorry to be a pain"

Alyssa shakes her head while smiling back at the girl and her cuteness. "Don't be silly, you're not being a pain. I'll just run and get that for you." She turns to yet again walk to the back.

_"Don't be silly, you're not being a pain."_ Spencer mocks. Paige rolls her eyes and drinks her soda before taking the grated cheese and tries to sprinkle it on her pizza but much to her frustration nothing falls out. She begins playing around with the jar.

Within thirty seconds Alyssa comes back out with the requested stuff and puts it down in front of Paige who's now knocking the jar on the edge of the table. "Need me to get you another one?" Paige's face turns red while she nods, hands the jar to Alyssa, and mumbles a thank you.

"You've got the be the pickiest pizza eater I've ever met. Why do you need a fork and knife to eat pizza anyway?" Spencer says while she grabs another piece since she already finished her first. "I'll eat the rest of the pizza before you even start your first piece."

Paige chuckles. "I noticed. And if you must know, I use a fork and knife because it tastes better."

This statement causes the girl across from her to raise her eyebrow. "That's impossible. It's not like it adds flavor. Unless you like the taste of metal."

"Well in my mind it does." Spencer smiles and shakes her head.

"It was my idea, so I'm paying." Paige argues once they received the check and grabs her wallet then puts the money on top of the paper.

Alyssa takes the money and check. She comes back in record time with the change and receipt and sets them both down on the table.

"Keep whatever's left." Paige says as she gets out of the booth.

"At least take the receipt." Alyssa looks to Paige hopefully.

"I don't need it." She says while walking towards the door and opening it for Spencer to walk out. Alyssa picks it up from the table and walks over to put it in Paige's jacket pocket. "Well I think you should take it just in case." Alyssa's eyes linger on the girls as she smiles. Paige nods and whispers bye before walking out after Spencer and letting the door close.

"Look at the back of the receipt." "What?" She looks over at Spencer with a confused expression as they walk back the way they came. Spencer rolls her eyes at Paige's cluelessness and reaches into the girls pocket to grab it herself. When she turns it over she smiles and puts it up to Paige's eye level. "She gave you her number, dumbass."

Paige's eyes light up and she smiles as she snatches the piece of paper from Spencer and stops walking to stare at the numbers written. "No way."

"Yes way, now come on before we're late to the orientation you so badly want to go to."

**Don't be afraid to tell me if I'm doing something wrong or give me advice to make it better. Like I said feel free to comment with anything you want to happen in this fic. And it is a Paily fanfic, but many of the beginning chapters will continue to be McHastings friendship just to strengthen the characters relationships. I'll most likely be updating weekly from now on. Thanks :). I hope this is helping if you're having Paige withdrawal, because lord knows I am. **


	3. Honey Whiskey

They walked in sync with a comfortable silence for about fifteen minutes back to campus. Once they got back the girls went up to their dorm before going to the orientation. Both of them step into the room and stand there just looking around.

"You don't need anything here?" Paige looked to Spencer expectantly. She shakes her head and grins. "I'm guessing you don't either?"

The girl snickers. "We came here for no reason then. Well I really don't want to get there early so I suppose we could just sit here." Paige goes and lays down on the bed after fumbling with the stereo she had put on her nightstand to put on music. "Any recommendations?"

Spencer looks back from her desk that she was rearranging to pass the time. "As long as it's not Justin Bieber, I'm fine with anything else."

"Oh come on, that's all I have." She chuckles and puts the alternative genre on shuffle.

Spencer's ear perks up when she hears the familiar song coming softly through the stereo. "Imagine Dragons?"

Paige instantly impressed that the girl recognized one of the bands less popular tunes. "You listen to them?"

Spencer finishes fixing her desk and slips into the chair then turns to face her roommate. They still had about a half hour until they had to leave so she figured she would make herself comfortable as well. "Of course. They're amazing. What's your favorite song off their album?"

"I really like Demons and Radioactive even though they're sort of played out. But My Fault and Nothing Left to Say are awesome too. Yours?"

"Same. What other bands do you like?" She reached under her desk to take out a soda from the fridge and threw one up to Paige. Which the girl easily caught in mid air while dangling off the bed.

"The Fray has always been one of my favorites. Maroon 5's newest album is one of my addictions. I like some hip hop and more laid back shit, too." Spencer quirked her eyebrow.

"Really? Like what." Paige scrolled through her playlists, found the one she was looking for then pressed play. She laughed when she saw Spencer's face contort into a cross between shock and disgust when hearing Started from the Bottom.

"You're kidding me." "Well sort of, it came with the album. There are some really good songs on it, trust me. You like Eminem?" "Only when I'm mad." This made her laugh again and shake her head.

"We should probably go." She climbed down the latter after dropping the soda down to Spencer and went to leave.

"That was probably the worst orientation I've ever sat through." Spencer rushed to leave the room she had been cooped up in for the last two hours, thankful it was finally over. They had played about six different games after getting back from the half hour long tour and each one of the activities were painfully annoying and completely foolish. She wasn't some sort of socially awkward person, she didn't need to be taught how to make friends. Well, maybe she did need some help, but she didn't think that was helpful at all.

Paige chuckled and struggled to keep up with the fast paced girl. "Hey, slow down. They're not going to call you back to talk to your admirer anymore." Spencer looked back and glared at Paige briefly before continuing her fast walk back to her room.

"Don't get mad at me, that's what you get for busting my balls about that girl from the pizza shop. He did seem pretty cute though, what was his name? Andrew?" The girl in front of her just shakes her head and keeps walking so she jogs to catch up to her.

"I heard you say you're a double major?" Spencer looks over at the girl and smiles confidently. "Indeed I am. Bioengineering and Environmental Engineering. You're a minor in Philosophy, correct?" The girl nods while Spencer continues. "I sort of wish I didn't apply for those specific ones right now, just because I'm not certain they're what I want but I knew I wanted to be a double major and I'd be stupid to go a year without one and then cram all that work into three years. I'm ambitious, but not unrealistic. You have any idea what you want as a major? English, maybe?" Spencer asks as she starts up the stairs.

"The minor in philosophy is more for myself than anything else. I just always loved it I guess. I don't really know what I want right now, seeing as I have so many options but I'm pretty sure it won't have anything to do with philosophy. Probably more towards science and math. I honestly had a hard time just coming to that conclusion. I'm just interested in everything and I'm afraid that I'll pick the wrong major just because I like it at that moment. Complicated, I know." Paige opens the door and lets the girl walk in first before following and shutting it behind her.

"You'll figure it out eventually, I heard its really normal to have an undecided major for the first year. Just take classes you think you'll like and that should help you choose. Do you have to go to the bathroom? I've had to pee for hours." She does a little dance before Paige answers.

"No, it's all yours." The girl laughs and sits in the chair to take her shoes off. Spencer comes out of the bathroom. "Why are you taking off your shoes?" Paige looks up and stops what she's doing. "Am I not supposed to?"

"No, you're not. We're going to get food. I'm starving." Spencer quipped before picking her clutch back up and walking to the door.

"Only the first day and I'm already getting bossed around. Maybe you should have paid attention to that orientation." She tied the shoe she still had on back up and put on the one she had taken off then followed. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"No. That's what you're here for." Spencer smiled at Paige when she scoffed and shook her head.

"What do you want?" "Take me anywhere." Paige raised her eyebrows at her and started walking towards the nearest Chinese place.

Once they had gotten their orders the two were too hungry to even entertain a conversation. Spencer was insanely grateful to have gotten a roommate that had already known her way around the city and not to mention was actually really easy to be around.

"There's this party going on tonight to start off the year, maybe you'd wanna go with me?" Paige asked as she finished up the chow mien on her plate.

"Freshman get invited to those?" "Not usually. You know how I said my grandma lives close by?" Spencer nodded while she took a sip of her drink. "Well I'm good friends with the girl who lives next door from her and she's a senior here this year."

The waitress came and took their plates and set down the check.

"Umm. I guess I could go. You just might have to carry me back to the dorm." Paige chuckled and went to throw down her card but Spencer quickly covered the holder. "I'll only go if you let me pay." "But.." She began to say before she was cut off. "No buts. You paid for the pizza, I'm paying for this." Spence gave Paige a stern look. She sighed and nodded before wiggling out of her chair after the girl across put down the money and got out of her seat.

"What time does it start?" The lighter eyed girl said as they started walking back to campus.

"10:30. We have time to get ready. I just have to shower." Paige says and they fall into another comfortable silence. She thought it was sort of weird that she was so relaxed around a girl she had just met. She appreciated that their conversations never seemed to be any unnecessary bullshit. Paige has never been one for meaningless small talk or really any talk for that matter. There was just something different about Spencer that made her not have to worry about saying the right thing.

"By the time we get there the party will be over." Paige hollered to Spencer who had been getting ready ever since Paige had gotten out of the shower, which was now an hour ago.

"I'm almost ready." Spencer just wanted to make sure she looked good. Not like she was trying too hard, but also not like she wasn't trying at all. She envies Paige who took all of twenty minutes to get completely ready and looks outrageously sexy.

With nothing else to do, Paige went over to the full length mirror just to check that she doesn't look like a scrub. She has her hair down with a trace of eyeliner and dark olive colored skinny jeans, black combat boots, a skin tight brown shirt, and a fitted black leather jacket on.

"How bad is this?" Paige turned to check out Spencer.

"No one will be able to even see you because of the light and as the night goes on they'll just be too drunk to care." Spencer gives Paige a pleading look. "Please tell me you didn't just say that."

She noticed how badly she worded that and went to quickly recover. "But if they could see you and they did care, they'd probably all drop dead." She winks and grabs the girls clutch for her with one hand and the girls with the other to drag her out of the room before she could protest.

"What's your poison?" Paige leans into Spencer's ear to make sure the girl can hear. Spencer does the same to reply. "I'll have whatever you're having." Paige smiles at her before elbowing through the crowd to get to the drink table. She fixes both of them a drink and goes back to where she left Spencer.

"Here. If you don't like it I can get you something else." The girl grabs the solo cup out of her hand then takes a sip and scrunches her nose. Paige watches and laughs as she sees the girls expression. Spencer lets the taste linger and then decides to take another sip. This one isn't as bad, it's actually pretty good.

"What is this?" She looks to Paige. "Honey whiskey. I'm surprised they have it here. The only problem I have with it is I end up drinking it like water." The girl drinks from her cup and searches the room before setting eyes on who she was looking for. She grabs Spencer's hand and maneuvers them through the people.

"Samara Cook" Paige says as she comes up behind the girl. She turns around and Spencer watches her eyes light up when she sees Paige.

"Oh my god. I'm so glad you came." She pulls Paige into a bone crushing hug and notices Spencer standing somewhat awkwardly next to them. "Who is this gorgeous woman you have with you?" Samara lets Paige free and motions towards the girl. "This is my roommate, Spencer." She wiggles her eyebrows and Spencer chuckles. "Roommate, huh? Wow, Paige you must have some luck. You guys staying a while? I got you your favorite, did you see it?"

"Of course I did. I figured you're the one who got it. I believe we're staying." Paige looks to Spencer who smiles and nods.

"Well in that case, let's have some fun. Follow me." Samara sets down her cup on the nearest table and grabs both girls hand to drag them along.

Spencer, Paige, and Samara had played party games for a couple hours and were currently playing a very drunk game of truth or dare. All three of them had past their fair share of alcohol.

"Your turn, Noel." Samara slurs out. "You, truth or dare?" The dark hair and brown eyed guy smirked from across the room and he gestured towards Spencer.

"Dare." Spence smiles cockily. Normally Spencer would have chosen truth knowing that the pig was probably going to dare her to kiss him, but the drinks had long since erased her better judgement.

"Bold girl. I like. I dare you to give McCullers a hickey." He winks towards Paige and keeps that obnoxious grin that seems to forever be plastered on his face.

"Come on, Khan. Go easy on her." Samara said before she saw Spencer lean over and attack Paige's neck.

The girl barely had time to react before she felt her new roommate suck aggressively on her pulse point and she just about muffled a moan. Seconds later Spencer let her sensitive skin go and inspected the mark to make sure it met her expectations. After she was satisfied, she sat back into her previous cross legged position while leaning back on her arms.

The guys all clapped and whistled as Paige sat frozen and red faced. "Spencer, I think you broke Paige." Samara chuckles and waves a hand in front of the girl.

Paige gets up and goes over to the drinks to pour herself the last of the vodka then chugs it all before sitting back down in the circle.

"You okay?" Samara leans over to whisper to Paige. "I will be in a minute." She smiles to the blonde then looks over to Spencer who's talking to Maya, a junior who her brother dated for a little while. "Paige. I was just telling your friend how I could hook her up."

Maya always had a ridiculous amount of pot on her whenever she came to one of these parties. Paige never really smoked, only at parties like this but she wasn't sure it would be a good idea if she did tonight with Spencer around. She tended to get a little hornier with the combination and didn't want her new roommate to experience THAT Paige too soon.

"Yea. Come on Pai, let's go outside really quick." Spencer grabbed Paige's hand to help her up and looked over to Samara. "We'll be right back." "Are you sure you want to? I mean I'll go with you but I don't think I'll be smoking."

The three make their way onto the deck in the back of the house. Maya slips a joint out of her jacket pocket along with a lighter and lights it.

"You're smoking too, don't be a party pooper." Spence looks to Paige with glazed eyes.

"Nah, I don't think so. I get weird when I smoke and drink." Maya snorts as she takes a couple hits and passes it to Spencer.

"If by "weird" you mean "horny", then yes. Remember when Maya, Avery, and I got you high for the first time?" Samara says while shutting the sliding door behind her. "You damn near pinned me to the bed after Maya thought it was a good idea to push me into you and we ended up kissing."

Paige laughed and nodded before she felt the joint being shoved onto her lips. She looked over to see Spencer raising her eyebrows expecting her to take a hit. "Your turn." Paige shrugs and hits a couple times then passes to Samara.

"You'll regret that, Spencer. You're the one sleeping in the room with her." Maya jokes once she takes the joint from Samara.

The highly intoxicated Spencer smiles and glances at Paige. "I don't mind."

"You're gay?" Maya looks incredulously at the girl.

She shakes her head but keeps smiling. "I didn't think so. I'm in college now though, isn't this the time to experiment?" Paige coughs; partially from the insanely long hit she just took, mainly from the words she couldn't have possibly just heard. She hears Samara laugh as she pats the choking girl on the back.

"You're damn right about that. If there's one person to experiment with, it'd be Paige. Just ask Sammy." Maya says at the same time she puts out the roach and slips in back into her pocket.

Spencer sees Paige's eyes widen before the girl rushes to open the door for everyone to walk through.

"You want to go back to our dorm?." Spencer says to Paige before they sit down.

The chocolate eyed girl looks over to her and smiles, the high setting in. "Sure."

How they had even managed to make it back to the dorm was beyond either of them. Though Spencer had lost balance and ended up taking Paige down with her because she tried to stop her from face planting into the pavement. Both of them were thoroughly drunk and high which didn't really make unlocking the door too easy. They had taken turns fumbling with the lock for the past ten minutes.

"Hah!" Paige takes the key out, turns the knob just enough to unlatch it then kicks the door open triumphantly. "Stupid ass door."

Spencer walks into the room without turning the lights on. Paige follows absentmindedly and soon she's feeling an obstacle blocking her. Before she knows what's going on, she's on top of Spencer and they're both on the floor.

"Shit. I'm sorry." She laughs and goes to get up when she feels a tug on her shirt holding her in place.

"Do you really want to get up." The husky voice sends a shiver down the girl's spine.

"Only if you want me to." Paige feels herself being pulled further down until their bodies are flush and she can feel the girl below her's breath on her own lips.

"I don't." Spencer closes the distance between them and feels Paige groan into her mouth.

Their tongues dance together while Spencer rips Paige's jacket off. The athletic girl somehow manages to pick the other up and pin her against the wall whilst Spencer wraps her legs around her.

Paige breaks the kiss to start pressing open mouthed kisses along her neck and down to her collarbone. She moves her head to allow the girl better access and she can feel her heart beat faster with every kiss. Soon she's getting thrown up onto her roommates bed and loving the feeling of the girl on top of her.

"You know we don't have to do anything you don't want to." Paige says sincerely.

"There's nothing I won't do with you tonight."

**Tell me if you want me to jump the McHastings sex scene or you want me to write it. I figured I'd make it up to you guys. Either way it's happening and there's a reason why. I have everything I want to happen filed into my brain and I promise it will all make sense later. I do have ideas on Paige's background since it's pretty much completely different from her in the show though her personality definitely won't be. By the way if you haven't already noticed, I plan on making this a pretty long fic. Anyway, thanks for all the support. If you guys end up wanting the scene, I'll most likely just make that one short chapter and it'll be up within a few days**.


	4. Naughty McHastings

**This is just for the vast majority that wanted to see the McHastings' sex scene. For those of you who didn't want to see it, I'll be updating at the regular time. So maybe next Wednesday or something like that. I'm thinking about starting a separate fully McHastings fic, tell me your thoughts on that. I personally don't favor Paily, McHastings, or even Panna over each other. **

Spencer takes Paige's shirt off and manages to unhook her bra before she flips them both over. As soon as she situates herself on top, she attacks Paige's neck with bites and licks. The girl below hisses with pleasure and grips Spencer's ass to encourage the girl to begin rocking against her.

The paler girl lifts herself up just enough to strip herself of the tank top she had on and throws it off the side. Paige's hands take the opportunity to roam over the newly exposed skin, one making it's way to the girl's bra and unclasping it with one effortless pinch and twist.

Letting her bra fall, she picks up Paige's by the middle and pulls it off to toss both of theirs away. Spencer rakes her hands up the girl's stomach and makes her way to her breasts to grip them firmly while leaning down to capture her lips into another heated kiss. She circles her thumbs over the girl's nipples until she feels them form into hard nubs. Paige bites down on Spencer's bottom lip which elicits a moan from the girl. She breaks the kiss and uses her grip on her ass to push her forward to trail hot kisses down her neck and chest. Spencer moves one of her hands to her hair while Paige takes one of the girls nipples into her mouth.

Spencer can feel herself pooling as Paige sucks and licks one of her nubs and begins grinding into her to try to cause some desperately needed friction. To make sure she wasn't neglecting any part of this girl's gorgeous body Paige moved to the other nipple and continued a similar assault while Spencer moves a hand down to undo the girl's pants.

Paige releases her nipple with a satisfying "pop" and helps Spencer in taking off her pants. Spence unbuttons her own pants and struggles to get them down before Paige helps her shimmy them down enough for her to kick them off.

They both simultaneously take off each other's last article of clothing. Spencer looks down at the effortlessly beautiful girl beneath her until she catches her eyes. Paige smiles and slides her hand behind the girls neck to pull her down and kiss her senseless. She takes her other arm and wraps it around her back to pull her down till their naked bodies are flush. Spencer moans as her center meets Paige's and begins grinding into her.

She trails kisses from her lips, up her jaw, to the back of her ear and whispers. "I want you to fuck me so bad, Paige." Before she can react Paige flips them over and starts sucking on her pulse point and guiding her hand down Spencer's torso and ghosts over her center to her inner thigh leaving a fiery hot trail. She keeps lightly grazing over the girl's thigh as she leans up to kiss her.

"Don't tease." Spencer rasps out. Paige takes that as permission and brings a couple fingers to part the girl. She groans as she enters Spencer's dripping wet pussy. Spence lets out a throaty moan and moves her hands to rake her nails down the girl's back. Paige begins thrusting in and out of her while she rocks against her hand. She kisses the girl beneath her in and effort to stifle her erratic moans. "God please, harder." She breaks away from the kiss to nuzzle her head into the girls sweaty neck and picks up her pace while using her thumb to circle the girl's hardened clit. Spencer feels a tight knot start to form just below her stomach. Paige starts to curl her thrusting fingers inside the girl and feels her walls start to trap them. "Oh God, right there." She kisses her way down the girl's torso before dipping her tongue into her and licking her length up to her clit. Paige starts lapping and sucking at the nub and proceeds her deep, curled thrusts inside Spencer's soaked center. She feels the girl wrap a hand through her hair and press her head impossibly close as she rocks her hips against Paige's face. Spencer's too far gone to realize she's scratching her free hand up Paige's back, surely leaving marks for tomorrow. All she cares about is the feeling of the girl's mouth on her throbbing clit and her fingers jamming into her g-spot. Paige doesn't know if what she feels dripping down her back is sweat or blood, but she can't seem to bring herself to care as she's relishing in the girl's sweet, tangy juices and her high pitched, breathy moans.

She feels Spencer's walls contract around her fingers and soon enough the girl's back is arching off the bed and her nails are digging into her scalp. "Oh Fuck, Paige!" Spencer screams out. Paige smirks while she wraps her arms around the girl's thighs to pin her hips to the bed and circle her clit a few more times to help her ride out her orgasm.

She gives her one more full length lick to suck up as much of the girl's juices before she kisses back up her torso. Paige moves out from in between Spencer's legs and lays down on the left of her before snaking her arm under and bringing her into her side.

Spencer lays snuggled into the girls side trying to regulate her breathing. Paige runs a finger lightly up and down her spine as she feels her lover for tonight's lips graze her neck. "Your turn." Spencer husks barely audibly whilst ghosting her hand down Paige's chest and abdomen until she cups her sex.

She hears her suck in a breath as she runs her fingers through her lips and begins tight circles on her already erect clit. Paige had been a good ways to her climax before Spencer even began to touch her. If she were being honest with herself, she had to admit she just about came when Spencer nearly suffocated her right before her own climax. So when she felt Spencer speed up her assault on her clit, she could feel herself dangerously close already. She started grinding herself on the girl's hand. "Cum for me, baby." Spencer coaxed. Before she knew it, she was doing just that. "Shit, Spence." Paige rasped out. She felt her orgasm crash into her and she moved her mouth to bite down on Spencer's neck.

She released the girl's neck and slumped back down on the pillow. When she finally got the energy to open her eyes, she peaked over to see Spencer lift her own fingers to her mouth and suck all the moisture off them. Spencer looked down at her with a sexy grin before laying her head down on the girl's chest and falling asleep to the sound of Paige's hammering heartbeat.

**I was pretty iffy about writing that scene, since I've never written a sex scene before. I'd love it if you gave me feedback on the writing itself, along with just your feelings of how it went down. Don't be afraid to tell me it's shitty if you think it is.**


	5. Coconut Water

Paige awakens to the feeling of liquid running down her neck. She opens her eyes, jerks her head up and instantly regrets it. Once she feels her head begin to throb and just about implode from the raging hangover she has, she quickly but carefully lays her head back down and shut her eyes.

She tries to lift her right arm but she can't feel it, so she lifts her left hand to touch the slimy stuff on her neck and comes to the conclusion that it's spit. Gently opening her eyes and looking to the right she sees her roommate sound asleep cuddled into her side. _Fuck_. Paige contemplates what to do while trying to wiggle her right hand fingers. Instead of actually feeling her fingers, she feels Spencer start to stir. She closes her eyes and pretends to sleep as the girl next to her lifts her head from her shoulder.

"Oh god." Spencer whispers once she realizes she's naked in her roommates bed who just so happens to also be naked. _How much did we drink?_ She tries to move her left arm and it's dead. Paige opens her eyes and looks over to Spencer again. Spence blushes and hides her face back in the girls neck. "I can't believe we did this." Paige chuckles. "Can we discuss this once I've gotten the feeling back in my arm?" "I can't feel mine either. You move first." Paige grabs onto the frame of the bed with her left hand and pulls herself towards it to free her arm. Spencer wiggles a little until her arm is fully out from under the girl. They both look at each other and burst into laughter. "This is so bad." Spencer gets out between laughs.

"It's a good thing we don't have school today." Paige adds before finally moving her right arm up and laying it across her stomach. "My head is killing me. One of us has to get down and get the Advil. I vote you because you made me smoke." Spencer raises her eyebrows and smiles. "It didn't take all that much convincing. But to be honest my head doesn't feel all that bad." Spencer shimmies over to descend down the ladder. "Toss me some clothes."

Spencer finds herself clothes, puts them on, and then throws some of the girls clothes up to her. She walks into the bathroom and takes out a few pills before going over to the fridge and pulling out a couple bottles of coconut water out. As she's walking around she's thinking about how to go about the actual conversation that's going to need to happen. She hands a water and pills to Paige and walks towards the bathroom again. "I'm going to hop in the shower."

Paige takes down the pills with a couple sips of the water. _This tastes weird._ She turns the bottle around and inspects it. _Coconut water? That's a first._ She chuckles to herself and drinks more. _You just had sex with your roommate and you're concerned about the water you're drinking._ She sits up slowly and decides her headache has subsided enough to get up.

After she gets down from the bed, she finds her headphones and cell, puts her shoes on and writes a note for Spencer. _"I'll be back soon. Going for a walk. Call or text if you need me." _She places the note on the girls desk. Once she picks her keys off her dresser, she leaves to walk aimlessly around the campus. _Well at least it wasn't awkward. _

Spencer gets out of the shower and when she opens the door she realizes she's walking into an empty room. She goes over to her desk and reads the note that's written in chicken scratch. _Maybe it won't be as bad as I thought. Hopefully she'll understand. For some reason I just feel drawn to her. _She has never felt this way about a girl before. Then again she's always been physically attracted to girls, but never to the point where she'd have sex with them. She has this weird feeling that there's something more to it than that.

She grabs her phone and calls the only person she can think of. As it rings she goes and sits down on her chair. "_Hey, Spence! What's up?_" She smiles and leans back to put her feet up on the desk. "Oh nothing. Just sitting in my dorm waiting for the person I had sex with last night to get back."

Spencer hears the girl choke on the other end of the phone. _"You had sex with someone the first day you got to college!" _"Wait, Em. It gets better. Not just any person. My roommate." She smirks as she waits for the response. _"Your roommate? You're kidding." _"Nope. And I'd say I wish I were, but to be honest I don't. When I woke up and the night before came back to me I thought I was going to have to change roommates." Spencer chuckles while shaking her head even though Emily obviously couldn't see that.

_"Do you really like her and that's why you don't regret it?" _"Well I don't really know. She's incredibly attractive and insanely easy to talk to. But it's just weird the feeling I get. Sort of like I'm attracted to her physically, and I like all that I know about her, but I don't have feelings for her. Plus now we've already had sex so it's not like we'll have to live together with sexual tension. Overall it's really confusing." She really didn't know how to put it any other way. Hopefully her friend would somewhat understand her.

_"Hmm. I think I get what you mean. Kind of like when I was with Ben. I liked his personality, I enjoyed being around him, I thought he was attractive for a guy, but I wasn't really emotionally invested in him. I would have never had sex with him though." _"I guess that makes sense. I just feel like it's more than that. It's like I gravitate towards her, but it's not really her. I don't know. Maybe once her and I talk it'll be easier."

Just then Spencer hears a knock on the door. "Thanks, Em. I have to call you later though. I think she's back."

She hangs up without hearing the girls reply and rushes over to open the door. "Forget your keys?" Paige smirks and shakes her head. "No. I just wanted to see if you were still here." Spencer laughs and goes back to sit at her desk. "And you couldn't have just opened the door yourself to see?" Paige looks up as if she's contemplating and then shrugs. "I suppose I could have."

She sets the water bottle down on her desk and sits down in her seat. "I have to admit, when I woke up to drool running down my neck and a dead arm, I thought for sure I was going to have to start looking for a new dorm." Paige speaks up after she finishes the drink and throw it in the trash.

Spencer looks at the girl through squinted eyes. "I do not drool." "Well the slimy liquid I had on my neck right where your mouth was says otherwise." She teases.

"Why is it that you're not freaking out though? I mean I'm not complaining, I just expected it to be a lot more awkward considering we just met and as far as I know, you were straight before I contaminated you."

Spencer laughs. "You didn't contaminate me. To be completely honest I don't really know why I'm not freaking out and it isn't weird. I guess it's just because you're not making a big deal out of it, so I don't want to make it one. I'm not saying I want it to happen again or that I'm interested in starting something. Which is really the only thing that I've been anxious about saying. I don't want you to think you're just some experiment or that I used you, but I also don't want to lead you on either. Christ, we just met yesterday and I feel like I've known you forever. You've just got this calming and safe aura around you that makes me comfortable. I just hope it doesn't ruin any friendship I know we definitely could have."

Paige is taken back by the girls words. Not because she hoped the girl would want more, but because it's almost identical to the way she was feeling. "I'm not into droolers, anyway." Spencer rolls her eyes and smiles. "Come on, I'm being serious." "I totally am too. Who wants to wake up every morning with slime on their neck?" She swats the girls shoulder while giggling.

Paige smiles. "I feel the same way. I was afraid you'd be uncomfortable around me and think I'd expect you to want to be with me. Which I don't. I like to know someone before I date them." "But not before you have sex with them?" Paige shrugs. "You got me high while I was already drunk. You were warned." Spencer shakes her head with a smile.

"I'm actually really hungry. Can we go get some lunch or something?" Paige nods and gets up to open the door. "You know, I never thought to drink coconut water for a hangover, but it actually worked really well."

Paige and Spencer got into their routine once school actually started. They'd wake up at 7 every week day to go out for a run together before class. The two made an effort to meet up for lunch everyday between classes and then once they got out at the end of the day they'd help each other study before dinner. After dinner they usually did whatever homework they had left over and just hung out until they went to sleep.

Both girls learned each other quite quickly, as far as figuring out what mood the other was in, what to do when they were in that mood, and their likes and dislikes. They had a very weird dynamic that a lot of the people they sometimes hung out with didn't really understand. To an outsider it would seem like they were really flirtatious, but that's just the way they were. Their friendly banter was something both of them really enjoyed and once they had gotten fully comfortable with one another, it was easy for them to open up to each other.

Spencer loved that she finally found someone that was hers. Not hers in a romantic way, but hers as in a person who had felt the same way she did when it came to their own separate best friends. Paige moved around a lot before college so she too didn't have one or two people that she felt completely a part of.

At times because they were really similar they would butt heads. But for the most part their differences made it really easy for them to get along. Paige was easy going whereas Spencer was sometimes up tight. Spencer was usually guarded around people whereas Paige wore her heart on her sleeve. Paige could get a B on a pop quiz and say she'd do better next time whereas Spencer would obsess over it. Overall they worked very well together in everything they were doing.

It was the Monday before Thanksgiving and both Paige and Spencer's professors had cancelled classes for the next day to give them an extra day of vacation. Paige was sitting at her desk just listening to music as Spencer was packing her things so she wouldn't have to tomorrow morning before her flight. "Were you able to switch your flight?" Spencer asks as she folds her clothes strategically to fit into her one suit case.

"What flight?" "Your flight. Aren't you going somewhere for Thanksgiving?" Paige shrugged. "I was just planning on getting ahead on assignments while you're gone." Spencer snaps her head up from her clothes to give Paige a concerned look. "You mean you're not going anywhere for Thanksgiving? Don't you have family to spend it with?" "Not really. It's no big deal. Last year it was just my brother and I but he's not here now." "You never told me you have a brother. Where is he? What about your mom and dad?" Now that Spencer thought about it, Paige never really spoke about her family at all.

"He's in Afghan. My mom died when I was sixteen and I never met my father. Spence, it's really not anything you should be thinking about. You're getting ready to see all your friends and family. Don't worry about me." Spencer looked at Paige as if she had three heads. "What do you mean it's nothing I should be thinking about? We've been roommates for three months now. I thought we were good friends. You never told me about your family before, and now I'm just hearing you're going to spend Thanksgiving in our dorm doing assignments?"

Paige starts playing with her hands and looking anywhere but at Spencer. "I just didn't think it mattered. I mean you never really talk about your family." "That's because I don't like them. But you at least know I have siblings and what my parents names are. Paige I confide in you about everything. I don't want you to talk about anything you don't want to talk about, but don't ever feel like I don't care about something that has to do with you. I want to know everything. Especially the fact that you don't have anywhere to go on the holidays." "I don't want you to pity me or look at me differently."

Spencer finishes packing quickly and put her suitcase to the side before climbing up onto Paige's bed and sticking her head over the edge to look down at her expectantly. "Come up here, you dork." Paige reluctantly gets up onto the bed and sits with her back against the wall next to her. Spencer scoots closer and lays her head on the girl's shoulder. Paige wraps her arm around her and starts running her fingers through Spencer's hair. "I guess I should tell you." Spencer looks up at her. "Only if you want to. I'll understand if you don't feel comfortable telling me about it." Paige shakes her head and gives her a small smile. "It's not that I don't feel comfortable. It's just it's not something I've ever had to tell someone." "You don't have to tell me. But I do want to know. I won't look at you any differently."

"You know how I said I moved around a lot?" Spencer nods into the girls shoulder. "It was always my mom, my brother and I. My mom worked a lot. Especially once I got older. We moved around a lot because she was constantly getting different jobs that paid better. When I was younger I always hated moving, it felt like every time I made friends I had to leave them. Eventually I just sort of gave up on making good friends and only hung out with my brother and his friends. Looking back now, I'm glad we moved around. It taught me how to adapt to different environments fairly quicker than others and I really like knowing how to navigate through different cities. The one thing that stayed the same was that every year I'd always stay at my grandmas here. That's how I know a lot of people here. Well really I only know them because of my brother, but that's because he's a lot less socially awkward than I am. When I was almost seventeen we were living outside of Pittsburg. Junior year had just ended and I was sitting at home packing to come here when the phone rang and it was my brother telling me I had to pick him up at the airport. At first I was happy because I hadn't seen him since February, but I could hear in his voice something was wrong and he wasn't due back until around Thanksgiving. I went and picked him up and he drove us to the hospital. The whole ride I was asking him what was wrong and where he was taking us but he just kept saying he didn't know. When we showed up at the hospital he told me to sit in the waiting room while he went and found someone to talk to. He came back and I can still picture the look on his face. To anyone else they would've thought he was fine, but I could tell that he was really upset. He came up to me and told me that mom got into an accident and they did all they could do to try to help her. I started crying and when he tried to hold me all I did was punch him. I used all my energy, I literally punched and cried until I just collapsed in his arms. He had a week until he had to go back which was spent packing everything in the apartment and moving all the stuff to my father's sisters house in Cape May, New Jersey. That was a nightmare. Before I went off to my grandma's this past summer she died. I had to stay in Cape May until school started."

Paige had been fighting tears the whole time she was speaking. Once she was done she finally let herself break down. Spencer picked her head off Paige's shoulder and pulled the girl into her as she cried in her chest. She knew that the girl probably never had to explain any of that, so she figured it was just best for her to let it all out. Spencer ran her fingers through the girls hair and kissed the top of her head a few times before eventually her sobs died down.

"I'm sorry for crying like an idiot. I know you probably think I'm weak and dramatic." Spencer lifts Paige's face up by her chin and shakes her head as she looks into her eyes. "Don't say that. You aren't an idiot or weak or dramatic. You have good reason to be upset and frankly I don't know how you are the way you are. If I had to experience those things I don't think I'd be able to look at life the way you seem to. It's crazy to me hearing all this because you're always so positive. I would've never thought that you've had to go through all that. I knew you were strong, but damn McCullers."

Paige scoffs and picks her head up from Spencer's chest. "Thank you." "For what?" "Listening. Caring. Being here. I never thought I'd find someone who I could call my best friend besides my brother. I'm just glad that you're willing to waste your time on me."

Spencer looks at her sternly. "You are not a waste of time, Paige. I don't want to hear you talk like that about yourself again." Paige looks away from the girls intense stare and leans down to lay her head in Spencer's lap. "What's your brother's name?" Paige smiles as Spencer starts playing with her hair.

"Avery. He's 21. He went into the marines right out of high school. He just went to Afghanistan in August. Before that he was in Texas. This will be the first year without him during the holidays, he's not supposed to be back until January."

"You're coming with me to Rosewood." Paige looks up at Spencer. "What? No. I don't want to intrude on anything." "Paige, I'm not asking. You're coming. You won't be intruding on anything. Please. Since my parents split up the holidays have been so awkward. You'll get to meet my friends. They've all been wanting to meet you." Spencer pouts and Paige has no choice but to give in. "Fine. But how will I get there? I doubt there are any tickets this close to Thanksgiving." "My mom knows people. She can get us on the same flight."

Just as Spencer said, Veronica got Paige a ticket for tomorrow and had Spencer's flight changed to the same one. It was Paige's turn to pack and she wasn't half as enthused about it as Spencer had been while packing her things.

A phone started ringing and Spencer went over to check it. "Samara." "Hand me it." Spence picks up the phone and hands it to Paige.

"Hey." "No, not anymore. I'm going to Rosewood with Spencer." "Why?" "Okay. I'll text you it." Spencer raises her eyebrow as Paige hangs up the phone. "Everything okay?" "Yea. She just wanted to know if I was still staying here. Then she wanted your number. I guess she has something to ask you." Paige texts Samara the number and goes back to packing. "Did she say what?" Paige shakes her head. "No. Just that it was important."

Spencer's phone rings and she answers. "Hello?" "How so?" "No. I don't think so." "My parents don't mind another guest." "Positive." "She's staying at my house." Paige looks up and gives Spencer a confused look. "Not at all." "It's my pleasure." "Will do." "Talk to you soon." Spencer hangs up the phone and texts Samara.

"What'd she want." Spencer shrugs and goes to help her pack. "Just making sure it was okay that you were coming with me because if not she would have dragged you with her." Paige chuckles. "You did me a real solid. I love Samara, but her family is crazy." _She has no idea._ Spencer thinks as her lips curl into a smile. "Once we finish this we should go to sleep. We've got to get up at 6:00." Paige nods and zippers up her bag and sets it down next to Spencer's. "Sleep?" Spencer laughs and nods. "Sleep."

**Hopefully my time jump will ease your troubled Paily minds. I decided not to go on the angsty road with the aftermath of McHastings sex. Mainly because I can't stand reading those types of things myself. I'll save the angst for Paily. **


	6. Tree Kissing and Recess Bullies

"Jesus, Spence. Your friends and family are going to think you abuse me."

They managed to sleep for majority of the plane ride, but when the pilot voiced over the intercom that they were landing soon Spencer jolted awake. She grabbed Paige's forearm and currently had a death grip on it. Her nails close to being embedded in the girl's skin.

"Ha ha. I hate landing." Paige scoffs. "I think I figured that out." Spencer lifts her head up from its position nuzzled in Paige's neck to give her a glare before hiding again. "You didn't seem tense when we took off." "I wasn't. I don't mind taking off. Just landing. What if the pilot misses the runway or something?" Paige laughs and rests her head atop Spencer's. "That would be inconvenient."

Minutes later they were walking through the terminal. "Who's picking us up?" Paige asked as they walked over to pick up their bags. "Hanna and my mom." Spencer spots their bags and rushes to the belt to snatch them. "Hanna should be around here somewhere. My mom's waiting in the car." Paige takes her backpack from her, puts it on her back and takes the girl's bag to carry for her.

"Spencer!" Before she can turn around she's being tackled by the blonde. "God, I missed you so much." Spencer laughs and grabs Hanna into a hug. "I missed you too, Han."

Paige stands there somewhat awkwardly with her hands tucked in her pockets and rocking on her feet. "Is this your roommate?" Hanna gestures to Paige while giving the girl a contagious smile. "Yes it is. Paige, Hanna. Hanna, Paige." Paige reaches out her hand but Hanna slaps it out of the way before pulling her in for a lung crushing hug. "You're all Spencer talks about anymore. I don't know how you live with her."

Spencer rolls her eyes and starts walking in the direction of the exit. The other girls notice her and follow suit. "Seriously. Junior year during spring break I had to stay at her house the whole week and I thought she was going to kill me." Paige laughs. "I liked it when she stayed over my house though. It was never more organized."

The three of them stood outside as Spencer scanned the area for her mom's car since Hanna was too engaged in her conversation with Paige to help any. "Come on, she's over here." They hurry over to the car and Paige puts the bags in the trunk while Spencer hugs her mom.

"Mom, this is Paige." Spencer said once Paige came into their view. "It's nice to meet you, Paige. We missed you the day we took Spencer to your dorm. She kicked us out before you could come back." Paige smiles and looks over at Spencer who's looking down at her feet. "It's nice to meet you too Ms. Hastings." "Please, call me Veronica."

"Ms. H, Spencer says she's starving and wants to leave." Hanna says from the back of the SUV. Spencer looks in the backseat at her incredulously. "Hanna, don't pin your hunger on me." Veronica and Paige laugh as they get into the car.

Spencer's mom starts the engine and drives off. "Paige, where are you from?" She says as she looks in the rear view mirror to see her. "I was born in Pennsylvania." "Oh yea? What part did you grow up in?" Spencer looks over at Paige and gives her a reassuring smile. "All over, I guess" Veronica looks at her again and smiles. "I always wondered what it would be like to not grow up in just one place. As long as you enjoyed it." Paige nods and smiles back. "I did."

Their conversation died down and Spencer soon drifted to sleep. Paige leaned her head up against the window and closed her eyes.

Hanna looked over at the girl to check her out. "Do you play any sports?" Paige picks her head up and turns to face Hanna. "Not competitively anymore. I used to swim and play field hockey and tennis in my high schools. Why?" Hanna shrugs and smirks at the girl. "You just look like you do." Paige raises her eyebrow. "Do you?" Hanna chuckles. "No. I'd rather watch other people play." She says with a wink towards Paige. "Our friend Emily swims for her college. I'm surprised she hasn't grown gills." "Spencer told me about her. Is she going to be in Rosewood?" Hanna shakes her head. "She's going to Texas because that's where her dad's stationed." Paige nods.

"What about Aria?" "Yea, she goes to Hollis so you'll get to meet her. I'm sure you'd rather meet Emily, though." "Why's that?" "Spencer didn't tell you?" Paige shakes her head. "She swims for our team." "So?" "I just figured you'd rather meet her." "You think I'm gay?" Hanna's eyes open dangerously wide and her face instantly pales. "No no. I just.." Paige laughs. "Relax. I am. The look on your face was priceless." Hanna swats her shoulder playfully. "You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought Spencer was going to wake up and slap me."

About an hour later they made it to Rosewood. They picked up take out from The Grill and went to Spencer's with Hanna and Paige chatting up a storm in the back. Veronica pulled into the driveway and they all got out. "Thank god. Now I am starving." Spencer says as she takes the food and rushes into the house. Hanna waits while Paige gets the bags and they both walk into the kitchen to see Spencer already ripping through the styrofoam containers.

Once they finished eating they all moved their stuff into the barn. "We're sleeping here this week. Hanna, you get the futon and Paige and I get the bed." "Hanna can sleep with you, I don't mind the futon." Spencer looks at Paige with an unimpressed expression. "No way. Hanna is the worst person to sleep with. I'll have bruises everywhere. Not to mention she snores like a pug." Paige laughs and looks back at Hanna with a shrug. "I tried."

They walk into the bedroom and Paige looks at the bed. "All three of us could fit on the bed." Hanna says with a pout. "If Paige is willing to sleep in the middle, fine. But you better not sleep on your back." "I don't mind. As long as you don't drool too." Spencer scoffs. "Prepare to wake up with a puddle next to your neck. I'm telling you. You're going to regret sleeping next to her."

"Wait. What do you mean "too"? How do you know Spencer drools?" Paige and Spencer look up from their stuff they were unpacking at each other. "I see it when I get up in the morning. It's hard to miss a huge dark spot on her pillow." Paige stammers out before going back to sorting her things, hoping that was believable enough. Spencer never said she didn't want her friends knowing, but she figured it wasn't her place to say anything. "Spencer only drools when she's sleeping with someone."

Just then a phone starts ringing. _Thank god._ Spencer taps accept and puts her cell up to her ear. "Hey, Aria. Where are you?" "We're just unpacking our bags now, come over." "Oh. Alright. We're in the barn, just come in." She hangs up the phone and finishes putting her things in the drawers.

The three hear the barn door open and someone walk in. "In here, Ar." The footsteps walk in their direction and then a girl walks through the doorway. Spencer runs over to her and picks her up in a hug. Paige puts her now empty bag off to the side and watches Spencer and the girl. She's a lot shorter than she expected. Spencer had shown Paige pictures of all the girls, but they didn't do them justice. At least not the two she's now seen in person.

"Paige. I'm so glad to meet you. Spencer talks so much about you." Aria walks over to Paige and pulls her in for a much safer hug than the one she shared with Hanna. "So I've heard." The petite girl goes and sits on the bed next to Hanna.

"How come you're sleeping here too, Han?" The blonde shrugs. "More entertaining. My mom and Ted are still in that honeymoon stage and as much as I love Ted, it's really weird. Plus, I get to share a bed with Paige and Spencer!" Spencer rolls her eyes and gestures for Paige to sit on the chair next to the bed. Paige obliges and Spencer goes to sit on her lap. Aria looks over to Paige. "You have no idea what you're in for." Hanna huffs. "You guys are mean. I can't help what I do in my sleep." The others laugh as Hanna continues to pout.

Aria gets up and starts walking out of the room. "I'm getting something to drink, anyone want anything?" They all shake their heads.

Paige pokes Spencer's side and thrusts her hips up. Spencer looks back at her. "What's wrong?" "I have to pee." Spencer gets up and let's Paige go to the bathroom.

"Soooo." Hanna says as she wiggles her eyebrows and grins devilishly at her. "What's the deal?" Spencer rolls her eyes again. "What do you mean?" Hanna squints at her. "I already know. I'm just waiting for you to admit it." "I don't know what you're talking about." "So you're telling me you haven't had sex with your smoking hot, incredibly sexy roommate?" Spencer chuckles. "Why does it matter?" "Oh my god! You totally did! Are you guys together? Emily's going to be so mad."Spencer gives the girl a confused look. "No, Han. We're not together. We just got really drunk at a party. We're best friends. Why would Emily be mad?" "Awe. You two would've made the hottest couple."

Spencer raises an eyebrow at her and waits for an answer. "Oh. Em would've been mad because the last time I talked to her she told me she saw all the pictures you have of Paige on Instagram and she thinks she's really cute. But when I told her to ask you for her number she said she couldn't because it'd be weird for you. So she knows?" Spencer nods. "Yea. It happened the first day and I called Emily because I was really confused about how I was feeling. I still am a little, but I've learned to ignore it." "Paige and Spencer sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g."

"Who's kissing in a tree?" Aria walks back in the room with a bottled water in hand. "No one." "Paige and Spencer." Hanna and Spencer say simultaneously. Spencer glares at Hanna while Aria looks to her shocked. "Yes. We slept together. One time. That was it." Spencer rushes out before crossing her arms and huffing. "Em will be disappointed when she hears you beat her to it." Aria says.

Paige walks in and the three girls all look over to her. "Did I interrupt something?" Spencer gets up and let's Paige sit back down before plopping down on her lap and leaning into her. "Nope. Hanna just wouldn't stop with the drooling thing. So now they both know." Paige nods slowly. "I guess that just leaves out your friend Emily." Hanna chuckles. "She already knows. I called her when you went out for your walk that day." Spencer says as she gets comfortable on her lap.

The four of them talk for a couple hours and then put in a movie to watch. Around eleven Aria leaves to go back to her dorm and the other three take turns taking a shower to get ready for bed. "You know, we're serious about Hanna." Paige shrugs and gets into the bed. "I don't mind. I'd rather have bruises. They fade away. I still have scars on my back from you." Spencer laughs and gets in next to her. She reaches over to the nightstand to get the remote control and turns the TV on. Paige had passed on her terrible habit of sleeping with the television on. Not long after, Hanna comes back into the room and gets in on the opposite side. "Night." They all said as they got comfortable.

Paige woke and thought she had déjà vu. Until she noticed that she had spit on both sides of her neck and she couldn't feel either of her arms. She laughed when she heard Hanna snore and saw that Spencer lifted her hand up to cover Hanna's face. "Ughh." Spencer groaned as she woke up.

Hanna woke up to Spencer pushing her off of Paige. "Speeenceer. Staahp." Paige laughed and was grateful to be able to have use of her limbs again. "Han. I'm making coffee. Want some?" Hanna jerks up at the word "coffee" and scowls at Spencer as she sees her not even out of bed yet. "Now you better get me some."

Spencer and Paige got ready fairly quickly, so they went into the house to talk to Veronica while Hanna took her time doing God knows what. "Hey girls. How did you sleep?" Spencer chuckles. "I think Hanna and I slept just fine." Veronica looks to Paige. "Did they make you sleep on the couch? You could have slept in Spencer's room or the guest room." Paige shakes her head and smirks. "No. I slept fine. Just waking up wasn't too pleasant." Veronica gives her a confused look before realization hits her. "They put you in the middle." "Hey, I tried to warn her. She wouldn't listen." Paige laughs and sits down on a bar stool while Spencer sits on the couch next to her mom. "You poor thing. They used to make Emily sleep in the middle. One day she woke up to getting slapped in the face by Spencer and kicked in the knee by Hanna. Needless to say, she doesn't sleep in the middle anymore." Spencer and Paige both laugh.

Hanna comes walking through the backyard door. "Spence, I'm serious. I need coffee." She stands by the door and becomes aware of Veronica's presence. "Good morning, Ms. H." The woman looks over at Hanna and smiles. "Morning, Hanna. What do you girls have planned for today?" "Coffee." Paige chuckles at Hanna's grumpy response. "I don't think we really planned to do anything." Spencer says while getting up. "Well, you could give Paige a tour of the town." Veronica suggests. "I think she's already seen it." Paige gets up from her bar stool and walks over to the door. "Through seven year old eyes." She jokes as Hanna opens the door. "I don't mind seeing it again. I'm sure it's changed a lot since I lived here." The three of them bid their goodbyes and make their way to Spencer's Highlander.

They were getting out in front of The Brew in no time. Hanna had been uncharacteristically quiet the ride over and seemed to be in deep thought while walking into the coffee shop. "You guys can sit down, I'll order for us." Spencer said gesturing to the couch in the back before walking up to the register. As Hanna and Paige went over to take a seat, Hanna slapped the back of Paige's arm. Paige looked over at her like she was crazy. "Now I know why you look familiar." The brunette prepares for the worst. _Which humiliating story is she going to cough up. _

Spencer is waiting behind a girl as she hears her phone ring. "Hello?" "We're going to be out all day. I left the barn unlocked. You'll be there around 5:00?" "Sounds good. See you later." She puts her phone in her pocket and orders their coffees.

"You were the kid Alison used to pick on during recess." Paige nods as she gets comfortable in her seat and prays Spencer hurries up. "Aria, Emily, and I would always tell her to stop, but for some reason she seemed like she had this thing for you. It's so weird. Aria and I were just talking about this when I first got back here yesterday. We came to the conclusion that she did it because she didn't like how Emily was always the first to defend you." Paige turns to look at Hanna. "You know, one day towards the end of the year during lunch Emily even went to go sit with you but Alison wouldn't let her. She promised Emily she would stop tormenting you as long as Emily didn't talk to you. Alison was always really possessive of Emily." Paige scoffs. "In the second grade?" Hanna nods. "Yup. In pre school she claimed us three as "her's"."

"Her's, huh? That sounds special." Now it's Hanna's turn to scoff. "Yea, really special. All it means is that she didn't embarrass you in front of other people. Behind closed doors she still made you feel like shit." "I think I remember you three. But vaguely. I use to catch glimpses of you off in the distance watching every time Alison would come up to me. I felt bad for you guys for having to deal with her all the time." Hanna breathes a sign of relief. "I thought you were going to hate us for not stopping her." Paige shrugs. "There's not much to do when Queen Bee is around. I would've felt even worse if you had stood up for me and gotten an earful from her. She did those things, not any of you. Second grade Alison was nothing compared to summer camp Alison."

Spencer comes over and sets down their coffees before sitting down in the chair. "So what do you guys want to do? We could catch a movie at the theater. It's always showing really good old black and white films." Hanna groans. "Oh please, no. That's all you and Aria make me watch. They made color tv for a reason." Paige laughs and takes a sip of her coffee. "I'm with Hanna. I used to not mind them, but you've definitely worn me out." Spencer pouts and sinks into her chair dejectedly. "Fine. Then you two figure out something to do."

"How about we take a ride to Philly?" Hanna suggests. "I'm down. I've been craving an actual cheesesteak for too long now." Paige says. Spencer shrugs. "Alright. But I think my mom mentioned something about Ashley and her wanting to have lunch with us. We could just go after that. I'll call her now."

"Your mom's funny, Hanna." She scoffs and nods. "Definitely. Try living with her."

The three got back into the SUV after having lunch at The Grill with Ashley and Veronica. It was almost two and they were just about to head off to Philly. "Spence, can we go back to your house? I think I left my phone in your house." Paige asks from the passenger seat. "Yea, and I really have to pee." Spencer laughs at Hanna and drives to her house.

When they get to the house Hanna rushes to the bathroom and Spencer and Paige search the living room for her phone. None of them noticing the yellow Scion on the street. "Are you sure you even had it when you came in here? Maybe it's still in the barn." "I don't know. I'll go check."

Paige goes into the barn, ignoring the bag on the floor next to the door. She searches the kitchen then goes over to the couch and picks up the cushions. She puts them back and walks down the hall to the bedroom. As she gets closer to the room, she hears shuffling coming from it. "Hanna?" She walks in the room and suddenly gets lifted up into strong arms. She kicks and screams as the figure turns her around and dangles her over their shoulder. "Put me down!"

**Paily's coming up, I promise. I just love Paige so much and I feel like she's hardly ever developed outside of her sexuality or being hopelessly in love with Emily. Feedback/requests are always acknowledged and greatly appreciated although it may not seem like it. :) **


	7. Clown Fish

The person laughs and she instantly recognizes the sound. Paige stops screaming but keeps kicking. He throws her onto the bed and keeps laughing.

"Paige! What's wrong? We heard you screaming all the way in the house." Spencer and Hanna come rushing into the room to see Paige smiling flustered on the bed and a guy standing in front of her chuckling. Neither of them paying attention to the girls who just walked in. Paige gets up from the bed and jumps into the guy's arms.

"You scream like a girl, P." Paige smacks him in the back of the neck.

"Shut up. I thought I was getting kidnapped."

Once Spencer and Hanna realize the guy isn't of any harm to Paige, they take the time to soak in his appearance. He looks to be about 6'2, with defined muscles that aren't so big they're alarming. On his left arm he has a tattoo that looks like a clown fish and koi fish shaped like a Pisces symbol with blue waves in the background. He's wearing a dark blue V-neck that fits him just right, ripped dark but faded jeans that aren't too tight but also a little baggy, with dark gray Timberlands. Hanna notices a big bandage peeking out under his shirt and looks over at Spencer to see if she notices too. When she only sees her smiling at the exchange, she goes back to try to see his face. His head is almost bald on the sides and the back, but he has about an inch or two on the top that's gelled. He has a strong jaw pretty similar to Paige's and a 5 o'clock shadow. He has a light bump at the bridge of his nose, but it seems to fit him well. She can't really make out much else from the angle but she decides that she's jealous of the way Paige is getting held in his arms.

Spencer comes to a similar conclusion but for a more complex reason. She can't help but notice that the feeling she couldn't quite understand when it came to Paige, she was currently having for Avery. Which was even more absurd seeing as they had only made very brief eye contact. _I wonder if they're alike._ That was a dumb thought. It would be stupid to think that she essentially had feelings for someone she never even knew existed. But maybe her heart knew. _Wow, that's cheesy._

"That's her brother." She says quietly to Hanna.

He lets Paige go and the girls can see they both have tears in their eyes. Once Paige gets over the shock of him being home, she gets a knot in her stomach at the possibilities as to why he's back and she has to know.

"Why are you here? I thought you weren't supposed to be back until January?" She looks at her brother concerned, still oblivious to the other people in the room.

He shrugs to brush her question off and turns to the girls. "That doesn't matter right now."

He points to the brunette. "You must be Spencer."

Spencer smiles and nods. "How'd you know?"

He chuckles. "I recognized your voice from when we spoke on the phone." He looks at the blonde. "Lemme guess, Hanna?"

She looks at him slightly shocked. "Yea. We didn't speak over the phone, so how do you know my name?"

He chuckles again and looks to Paige. "I remember you from when we lived here."

Paige looks at him quizzically. "How? I barely even did."

"One day when you were absent in second grade I decided to go up to that horrible girl's table and rip her a new one for messing with my little sister. The tiniest girl, Aria I think, looked like she was going to piss herself, Emily just looked away, and this one." He points to Hanna. "Laughed her ass off." They all burst into laughter.

"I remember that! I've never seen Alison so scared in her life." Hanna says.

Avery scoffs. "I have. Apparently she didn't think I'd go to their summer camp so she assumed she was all in the clear to torment her there. That time I wanted to literally rip her a new one."

Paige backhands his chest. "Enough about her. You still haven't told me why you're here."

"For Thanksgiving." He says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. She gives him a pointed look. "I'm sure your friends don't care about that. Come on. Let's go do something. I've missed Pennsylvania."

"We were about to go to Philly." Spencer says to try to break the tension in the room.

"Cheesesteaks!"

Hanna and Spencer laugh. "That's what Paige said."

"I've been meaning to ask you why you have a clown fish on your arm." Hanna asks as they're eating their sandwiches outside.

Paige smiles while Avery has his mouth full. He chews the rest and replies. "I knew I wanted a koi fish, but I wasn't sure what to get for the other. Paige likes to think she's a clown and she was always a fish in the water."

Hanna looks at him admirably. "Aww. You got a clown fish to symbolize Paige?" He blushes as he looks down and nods.

"How long are you here for?" Spencer speaks up to save him from further embarrassment.

"I'm back permanently." He finishes his sandwich and shifts in his chair.

Paige looks over at him with concerned eyes. "Why?"

He chuckles nervously. "You don't want me to be?"

Paige rolls her eyes. "Don't be stupid. You know what I mean. Stop avoiding the question, Av."

He shrugs and plays with his hands. "I got discharged."

His sister looks at him through wide eyes. "What? Why? What happened? Are you okay?" Spencer reaches her hand over to put on Paige's thigh. "Paige, calm down. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it just yet."

Paige looks over at Spencer with a furrowed brow. "Well he's going to talk about it. They don't just discharge you for stubbing your toe! There had to be a real reason."

Avery sighs and reluctantly gives in. "It's no big deal. It was more for my actions than anything else. I did something I shouldn't have."

Paige looks back at her brother. "Like what?"

"I just did something stupid that could have hurt other people in my unit."

"Which was?"

Hanna catches him clench his jaw as he gets up and says. "I'm going for a walk." He glances at Hanna and she sees his usually bluish-greenish eyes have turned a light gray.

Paige scoffs. "Whatever, Avery. I don't know why it bothers you so much that I want to know why my brother got discharged early."

"He just needs time, Paige. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it around us." Hanna says in hopes to comfort her.

She sighs and nods. "Can one of you go after him? He won't want to talk to me." Spencer nods and gets up to jog over to him.

She walks beside him without saying anything, figuring he probably clams up when he doesn't want to talk much like Paige does.

After about five minutes, Avery decides to talk. "I just don't want her to be ashamed of me. You know?" He says as he glances over at Spencer.

"She won't. She's just scared that you're keeping something from her. She doesn't know if you're really hurt." Spencer reassures.

He shrugs and looks at their feet as they walk. "I got shot but I'm fine."

Spencer flickers her eyes up and down him quickly and nods. "Hanna and I can give you two time to talk if you don't want us to be around for the conversation."

He shakes his head. "You seem to calm her down, I don't mind if you two stay."

They walk back to the table the girls are sitting at. Avery leaned to kiss Paige's head before sitting down. "My unit and I went to scan a small shack and we found a couple men abusing a little girl. We were always told not to interfere with something that wasn't our problem, since it didn't involve any of our men, it wasn't our business. But I couldn't just leave the girl there, it didn't feel right to me. I waited until my unit was out and I raised my gun to the two men and yelled at them to let her go. They did, and pushed the girl towards me. I reached for her and as soon as I got a hold of her I heard a gunshot."

The tears that had been threatening to fall from his sisters eyes slid down at the thought of her brother being hurt. He wipes them away as Spencer grabs her hand. "I shielded her and shot the two men, and the one who had come in with the gun. I didn't even notice I had gotten shot until one of my guys had seen the blood and asked whose it was. I was lucky, it just about grazed my hip bone. It missed anything major. It happened last week and I sometimes forget about the bandage even being there. Although I'd be okay physically to stay, they said while it was selfless, it was also reckless and I could have caused someone else on my unit to get hurt. Since I had never been reprimanded about anything else the past three and a half years, I was honorably discharged."

Paige nods and scoffs. "I thought it was going to be a better story than that." She jokes and Avery smiles as he shakes his head.

"Alright, clown. Sorry your brother's not as badass as you." She punches his arm and they all get up to get back in the car and to somewhere else.

"I think getting shot is pretty badass." Hanna says to Avery who's sitting next to her in the back. He laughs and smiles at her. "Thanks."

"Can I see it?" Avery raises his eyebrow with a smile at Hanna's request.

"No! Not in my car!" Spencer says from the front and they both laugh.

"I have to change the bandage when we get back to Rosewood. You can see then."

"Can I like, stick my finger through you?" Hanna asks with genuine interest.

The whole car booms with laughter. "I already tried. My super-fast healing powers squashed that dream." Hanna squints her eyes at him and he laughs again.

"Let's go ice skating!" Spencer says as they drive down Market St.

Paige looks back at Avery. "Can you do that?"

Avery scoffs. "I picked your ass up, you think I can't ice skate?" Hanna and Spencer laugh as Paige glares at him.

The whole time they were on the rink Avery had to basically carry Hanna around because she was too afraid to even move her legs. Paige and Spencer of course made it a competition. Hanna whined until they finally took a selfie to post on Instagram. Avery caught an elbow to the stomach when he teased that she wasn't even ice skating.

Once Paige and Spencer got tired, they decided it was time to head home. On their way back Avery drove since Spencer was practically panting from obviously pushing herself too much. Hanna sat in the front so that meant she controlled the music. If Spencer wasn't half asleep in the back, she probably would have protested against the hip hop currently blaring through the speakers.

They made it back to Spencer's house around eight. Spencer and Paige were exhausted, while Avery and Hanna were just hungry. The first two cuddled on the couch to watch a movie and the other two went for a ride to pick up some Chinese food.

While Spencer and Paige were watching the TV, Spencer couldn't help but think about what Avery and Hanna were doing. She was actually pretty jealous that Hanna would get the time alone with him, but she would never admit that. "You think Avery likes Hanna?"

Paige smirks and pears over at Spencer. "Yea. There aren't many people he doesn't like." Spencer rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean."

The girl she was laying on top of laughed. "They just met. I'm sure he thinks she's attractive, which she is. Why does it matter?"

Spencer shrugs. "I don't know." They both go back to paying attention to the movie before Paige speaks up again. "Do you think Hanna likes Avery?"

Spencer lifts her head off the girl's chest to look at her. "Of course she does. She's Hanna. She's probably flirting with him as we speak."

Paige grins. "They would make a cute couple I guess. Avery totally has a thing for blondes. Samara was his first girlfriend after all."

"Great." Spencer mumbles, making Paige chuckle.

Once Hanna and Avery came back they all ate and got ready for bed. Avery slept on the futon and the three girls slept in the bed again. As it had been the night before, Hanna and Spencer fell asleep before Paige. She skillfully removed herself off the bed and went out to the living room. When she got there, Avery was already asleep. She got under the covers and nuzzled herself into her brother.

Avery was right. Paige was a clown, but not only because she found herself funny. She always had a tendency to hide whenever she was upset. Brush things off like they didn't affect her, when in reality she was just as sensitive as the next person if not more. Instead of crying or voicing how upset she was, she'd make a joke. She thought it was better for everyone. Avery knew that, that's why he just plays along.

She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. Not because she wasn't tired, but because she was afraid that she'd dream of her brother getting shot. Paige had always been proud of everything her brother did, including join the military. But she'd be lying if she said there was a part of her who wished he hadn't. When her grandmother died she tried to convince him to not go back. She knew it wasn't that easy, but she had to try. She hated knowing that at any moment she could get the call saying the only person she really had anymore was dead. As much as she's upset that something did happen to him, she also grateful that he can just be home now.

Avery woke when he heard sobs and felt tears run down his neck. He quickly realized it was his sister and wrapped his arms around her tight to try to shield her from any more pain. "It's okay, P. I'm not going anywhere." She cuddled further into him and eventually fell asleep in his protective hold.

Spencer and Hanna woke up at the same time. "Where's Paige?" Spencer shrugged as she looks under the covers to make sure she didn't obtain any bruises during the night.

"Maybe she's in the kitchen." They get up and make their way to the kitchen and find no sight of Paige. Hanna pokes Spencer in the side and once the brunette turns Hanna points to the futon.

"They are way too adorable." Spencer says as she turns the coffee pot on. When she turns around she sees Hanna hovering over them to get a picture. She just shakes her head at her friend's antics and sits down on the chair.

"I got it!" Hanna whispers excitedly as she walks over and shows her the picture.

Around ten everyone went into the house and started helping with the food. Soon the kitchen was a mess and they were plating everything. Once four came around, they all gathered at the table. Ashley and Ted had come along with Peter and Spencer's sister Melissa. By the time everyone finished eating and left it was around six. Avery, Hanna, Spencer, and Paige all cleaned everything up and said goodnight to Veronica. Aria showed up right as they were walking through the yard.

When they got into the barn Paige's phone went off. She checked the number and she didn't recognize it but accepted it anyway. "Hello?"

_"Hello, is this Paige?"_

Paige's brow furrows. "Yes, who is this?"

_"Spencer's friend, Emily. I know this is going to sound weird but I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor."_

"Sure, what is it?"

_"I wanted to surprise the girls. But I sort of didn't think it through. I'm hoping you'd be able to come and pick me up at the airport. If you don't want to its fine, I'll totally understand."_

"No, I don't mind. What time?"

_"Well my flight is supposed to take off at nine. So probably around twelve."_

"No problem. I'll be there for twelve."

The girls all went to the bedroom for reasons unknown so Paige turns to Avery who's the only other person left in the room. "Can I use your car around eleven to go pick someone up at the airport?"

Avery looks at her confused. "Yea. Who needs a ride?"

"Emily. She wants to surprise them. I'll just say that I'm picking up Samara or something." Paige whispers even though they couldn't hear her even if she didn't.

Avery nods and smirks. "Hmm. So you wouldn't want me to tag along?" He wiggles his eyebrows at Paige and she smirks and rolls her eyes playfully.

"Well you better remember when I taught you how to drive stick."

Paige looks over at him quizzically. "Why? Your Mazda isn't a standard."

He smiles. "I got a new car."

"Nuh uh."

He nods. "Limited edition FR-S."

"The yellow one!?"

"Yup. She's sexy as fuck. If I find so much as a minuscule scratch, your ass is grass McCullers." Paige rolls her eyes.

The girls come out of the bedroom with a movie in each of their hands.

They watch Hanna's pick "Mean Girls" first, by vote of Avery and Paige. Paige is glad she won't be here for the last one; a black and white one that Aria picked out. When eleven rolls around Paige gets out from under Hanna and the girl looks up at her unimpressed. "Paigeyy. Where are you going?" The blonde says through pouted lips and Spencer pears over her shoulder at them.

"I have to go pick Samara up from the airport."

"Samara? How come you didn't tell me?" Spencer asks slightly offended.

Paige shrugs. "She just called me a couple hours ago."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Hanna says.

Paige shakes her head as she gets Avery's keys. "Nah. I'm good to go on my own."

"That means she needs a break from you guys." Avery jokes and Spencer slaps his arm.

"I'll see you guys in a couple hours."

**I'm sure you guys are good and ready for the next chapter. I won't hold out on you for too much longer. **


	8. Yellow Scion

Paige pulls around to one of the doors at the airport and texts Emily _"I'm in a yellow Scion." _

Emily walks out of the airport wheeling her suitcase when she feels her phone vibrate. She reads the text and scans the curb for the car. Once she spots the coupe she jogs over. Paige opens the door, pops the trunk, and steps out to lift up the trunk and help Emily with the suitcase. They both get in the car and Paige finally looks over at the girl.

"Hey. Thanks so much for picking me up. You must think I'm a creep for getting your number and asking you to." When Emily smiles at her, her breath gets caught in her throat and she can't do much besides shake her head. Emily's smile turns into a flirtatious grin as she raises her eyebrow. Paige almost gives herself whiplash when she jerks her head away to look straight ahead.

"It's no big deal. I owe Spencer anyway."

"How so?" Emily's brows furrow ever so slightly.

_God, when isn't she gorgeous._ Paige smiles at both the thought of Emily and Avery. "She surprised me with my brother yesterday." Emily looks at her with a bit of confusion. Paige glances and realizes that sounded weird. "He came back from Afghanistan early. I wasn't expecting him until January."

Emily smiles and nods. "You must have been happy. I sort of know how that feels. Fort Hood is a lot less scary than Afghanistan I would imagine. But it still sucks not having my dad around." Paige nods and starts driving off. She can hardly focus on the road when she has what she swears to be a goddess sitting in the passenger seat, but she manages.

"Did you say Fort Hood?"

Emily nods. "Yea, why?"

"I'm pretty sure that's where my brother was stationed up until August." Paige says.

"Oh really? What's his name?"

"Avery McCullers. What's your dad's name?" Paige glances at her.

"Wayne Fields."

"Lieutenant Colonel?"

Emily looks over at her surprised. "How'd you know?"

Paige flashes her a smile. "Avery always talks about him. He's like his idol."

Emily chuckles lightly. "I'll mention him to my dad some time."

"I'm guessing this trip was spur the moment?"

Emily smiles and says sarcastically. "How'd you tell?"

Paige laughs and shrugs. "Just a guess."

"How do you like Hanna and Aria?" Emily asks genuinely interested in the girl's opinion of her friends.

"Aria seems nice, I haven't really spent time with her. I've slept with Hanna and Spencer so I can at least give you an educated opinion on them." Paige says nonchalantly.

Emily's eyes practically bulge out of her head. Paige glances at her and instantly regrets her choice of words as her face turns bright red. "Not like that. I mean as in the same bed."

Emily lets out the breath she was holding. "So just Spencer?"

Paige laughs nervously. "Yea, just Spencer."

"Do you have feelings for her?" Emily asks seriously as Paige furrows her brow. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No. No I don't. She's awesome and I love dorming with her but I don't have any feelings for her." Emily nods and takes her gaze off of the girl for the first time since they've been in the car.

Paige's phone starts ringing and she tries to find it on the seat but it's not there. She reaches under the seat and feels Emily put her hand on her shoulder to push her back.

"I'll check." Emily starts checking in between the center console and the chair with no luck. She leans to check under Paige's feet and ends up with her face in Paige's crotch before she finds it and pulls it up. Paige smiles nervously at Emily when she leans back in her seat.

"Thanks. Can you accept it and put it on speaker. Don't talk though." Emily nods lightly. "Hello?"

_"Hey, where are you? Avery made us watch a horror movie and now none of us can go to sleep."_ Hanna's voice comes through the speaker phone and Emily has to stifle a laugh.

"We're about 40 minutes away."

_"Hurry! I need my cuddle buddy to fall asleep."_ Emily raises her eyebrows and Paige looks away. "We'll be there soon." Emily hangs up the call.

"I guess Hanna likes you."

Paige humbly laughs. "I like her too. But Spencer seems to think she likes Avery a bit more than me. Even though I'm convinced it's just because Spencer is the one who does." Emily chuckles. "The one thing I've always wondered is how they've never managed to fight over one guy. I guess your brother is going to break that record."

Paige shakes her head. "I doubt it. Avery would never do that. I'd kick his ass if he did."

Emily smiles. "I don't mean this because I don't want you here, it actually worked out in my favor. But how come you spent Thanksgiving here? Wouldn't you rather spend it with your family or your girlfriend?"

Paige looks over at her with a smile. "What makes you think I have a girlfriend?"

Emily blushes and avoids her gaze. "I guess I just figured you had one. I don't see how you couldn't." Emily gauges her reaction to find a smug smile. _That smile._

"Why aren't you with your girlfriend?"

The raven haired girl shrugs. "I don't have one."

Paige scoffs and looks over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yea right. That's probably what you tell all the ladies."

Emily smirks. "Who's hitting on who now?"

The auburn haired girl shrugs and catches Emily's eyes. "Me on you, I suppose." Emily gets taken back by her bluntness.

"Are you hungry?" Emily manages to say after a short silence.

"Planning on wining and dining me, Fields?"

Emily shrugs. "Maybe. Depends."

The slightly taller girl glances at her. "On what?"

It's Emily's turn to smile smugly. "Whether or not you want me to."

"Anytime." Paige turns her head to give her a genuine half smile that stops Emily's heart.

After a few minutes Paige speaks up again. "Are you really hungry though? I think I saw a pizza place open on the way here. I don't know if it still is though."

Emily smiles at Paige's sincere concern. "I think Hanna would be mad if I said yes."

Paige shrugs and pulls into the parking lot. "I think she'll get over it if we bring her some. As long as you don't steal her cuddle buddy."

"I'll try not to." She winks at Paige as she steps out of the car.

They order a few single pieces to eat now and a couple whole pies for the others before sitting down at a booth.

"Where do you go to school?" Paige asks as they eat.

"Bryant University."

"Rhode Island, right?"

Emily nods and moves on to her other piece of pizza.

"What do you major in?"

"I major in International Business Management and minor in Finance and Economics. You?"

Paige smiles incredulously at her. "You could give Spencer a run for her money." Emily lightly blushes and smiles. "But I just minor in Philosophy. I haven't figured out a major yet. To be honest, Stanford was awesome when I wanted to play sports but I'm not really sure if it has a major I'd really want to commit to."

"So that means you have some knowledge of what you want to major in, right?"

Paige nods. "Yea, I guess I do. I just don't want to transfer. I love my roommate and the classes that I have are great, the campus is awesome. I'll most likely end up just staying. The major I think I want is probably just another phase."

"You'll never know until you try. You could always just take as many classes at Stanford as you can for the major and then a couple years from now transfer to a college that has it. I think Spencer will be upset when she hears this though." Emily smiles at the girl.

"Yea I don't think she ever will hear about it. Her pout is just about as bad as Hanna's."

Em laughs and nods. "Agreed."

Paige finishes her food and leans back in the seat to wait for Emily. "You swim for Bryant?"

Emily nods again. "Yea, it's a lot different than high school. I'm surprised you're not swimming for Stanford."

"Why do you say that?"

Emily shrugs and finishes. "I can remember you from meets. I was surprised when I didn't see you at many senior year."

Paige nods and gets up from the booth. "Yea, I moved to New Jersey."

Emily follows her while she picks up the pizzas to go and walks to the car. "When Spencer told me your name after a couple weeks I asked if you swam and she said no. Did you get injured?"

Paige shakes her head as they get into the car and she places the pizzas on Emily's lap. "No. I sort of stopped enjoying it senior year. It started being a stress motivator rather than reliever I guess."

Emily nods knowingly. They sit in silence for a while, Emily taking advantage of it by taking all of Paige in as the girl drives. _This girl doesn't know how gorgeous she is. _She rakes her eyes over her arms and watches the girl's hands as she makes a turn. _Even her fingers are attractive. _Paige glances over at her and smiles. Emily's face heats up and she turns to stare ahead while she plays with the zipper on her jacket.

"Is this your car?" Emily asks.

Paige shakes her head. "I wish. It's my brother's."

"Does he live around here?"

"I don't know, to be honest. Like I said, Spencer surprised me with him. I haven't actually asked him yet."

"Don't think he'll want to move back home?"

"I'm sure he would if there were one to move back to."

"Your parents won't let him?" Paige shifts uncomfortably and grips the steering wheel tighter. Emily notices her demeanor change. "I don't mean to be nosey, it's really none of my business. I'm sorry."

Paige shakes her head lightly. "Don't be sorry. It's just complicated and I don't want to bore you with it."

Emily looks at her. "Nothing that involves you could ever bore me." Paige turns her head to make eye contact to see if the girl's joking. Once she catches Emily's smiling eyes, she can't help but genuinely smile back.

She turns to face the road again, clears her throat and shrugs lightly. "I guess you could say there are no parents left to let him."

Emily hears the sorrow in her voice and instantly feels bad for pushing her. She opens her mouth to speak but Paige beats her to it. "It's okay. I know you want to know. I'd be curious too if someone I just met were throwing around all these cryptic answers." Paige glances over at her with a small smile to try to reassure the girl that she did nothing wrong. She pulls into the driveway before pressing the button to shut the car off and sit back. "My dad left when I was a baby and my mom died the summer before last in a car crash."

Emily could tell that Paige was trying to make light of it for Emily's sake and most likely her own too. She was keeping it together a hell of a lot better than Emily thought she herself would, but she knew she was still struggling nonetheless. After debating with herself, she reached a hand over the center console and placed it on Paige's thigh.

Paige swore she felt a surge of electricity run from her thigh up to her chest. She looked down to see why and found the girl's hand. Emily watched the girl as she stared down at her hand and mistook her shock as uncertainty. She stutters out in a whisper. "I'm sorry." Emily goes to move her hand but Paige quickly grabs it lightly.

It's Emily's turn to stare down at their hands. When she lifts her head up to look at Paige she finds her already looking at her. They silently challenge each other to an intense staring contest. Once Paige catches Emily's eyes flicker down to her lips, she starts slowly leaning in to capture those lips she's been secretly admiring the last few hours in her own.

The car suddenly echoes with a ringtone. _God dammit._ Paige sighs as she fishes for her phone and Emily picks it up from where she last put it. "Your cuddle buddy." Emily smiles seductively and hands her the phone.

Paige smiles back and accepts the call. "Hello?'

_"Where are you?! You said forty minutes an hour and a half ago!"_ Hanna's voice comes through the speaker an octave lower than a screech.

"We'll be right there. We stopped to get pizza."

_"If you come in this barn without a pizza for me you'll be sorry."_

"Alright." She smiles at Emily as she moves the phone away from her face and says "Sammy, looks like we have to turn around and go get more pizza." Paige moves the phone back. "Han, I guess we'll see you in another hour then."

_"NO! You get your ass in this barn right now. I am way too tired to wait anymore." _Emily covers her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Be there in five." Paige hangs up and finally bursts into laugher.

"I think you almost made Hanna cry." Emily says while looking at her.

Paige chuckles. "I would never."

"We better get in there before she really does start crying." They hold each other's gaze for a few seconds before getting out of the car. Paige pops the trunk for Emily and grabs the pizza.

Once they have everything, they walk into the back and stop at the barn door. Paige looks to Emily with a smile. "Ready?" Emily nods excitedly.

Paige opens the door and walks in first. Everyone looks towards the door. "I come barring pizza." Emily walks through the doorway and Paige says. "And an Emily!"

"AHHHHHH!" The three girls scream as they jump up from their seats and tackle Emily. Avery looks to Paige and smiles.

"Oh my god Emily! Why didn't you tell us?" Aria says when they finally let go of each other.

Emily smiles and looks over at Paige. "It wasn't exactly planned."

Spencer looks back at Paige too. "Did you know about this?"

Paige laughs. "I was informed about two hours in advance."

Once the four girls got over the hype of being back together again, they all came crashing down from their high and were currently fighting over who was sleeping where.

"I seriously don't care if I sleep on the floor. Then Emily and Aria can sleep on the futon." Avery says to try to resolve the issue.

"No, you don't have to. Aria can sleep with Paige and Hanna, and Emily, you, and I can sleep on the futon. It's big enough." Spencer suggests, hoping no one will catch on to her selfish reasoning behind it.

"I highly doubt Emily wants to share a bed with a guy she just met. Spencer, it's fine."

"Hanna and Aria are already asleep and they're taking up literally the _whole_ bed." Paige says when she comes back in the living room.

Avery moves the chairs up against the futon. "Problem solved."

The three others in the room inspect the layout. "I don't know how we'll manage with that but I'm too tired to care." Paige says and lays down in the middle. Avery laughs and picks his sister up to situate her so her feet rest on the chair.

"That's genius." Spencer says. "Em, you get in next to her, I'll get in next to you, and Avery on the other end." Emily nods and does as she's told.

Everyone settles in and bids their goodnights. Not too long after they're all drifting to sleep, until someone starts chuckling. "What's so funny?" Emily asks.

"We really just took a half an hour to figure out our sleeping arrangements." Paige says as she laughs and soon the others all laugh along.

Emily's the first out of the four to wake up. She quickly realizes she's wrapped up in the girl she just met not even a day ago, but can't seem bring herself to move. _She's so warm._ Emily decides she'll just stay and wait until Paige gets up before moving. She certainly doesn't mind the smell of the girl's hair in her face, or the feeling of her arm wrapped protectively around her back, or the sound of her heart beat in her ear.

Spencer wakes up in an almost mirrored position and oddly similar thoughts. The two best friends are taken out of their contentment and the siblings are taken out of slumber when Hanna comes into the living room. "Guys! Get up."

Avery and Paige both stretch out and get up while Emily and Spencer lay in the same place feeling disappointed and dejected. "Why do we have to get up?" Spencer groans.

"Because, we only have a few more days together and we can't waste any time sleeping." Hanna exclaims.

"Avery, let's go get coffees. I think Spencer will strangle Hanna if she doesn't get her fix soon." Paige says and looks to Hanna. "You want to come, too?"

Hanna goes to nod and say yes before she looks over at Spencer to see her deadly glare. Instead she says. "I actually wanted to umm…get in the shower."

Paige notices the exchange and chuckles. "Alright. Someone just text one of us what everyone wants." She says as her and her brother make their way out of the barn.

When they get in the car they both look over at each other with a stupid grin on their face. "What?" They say simultaneously.

"How was your trip with the goddess?" Avery asks after laughing.

Paige's grin turns into a cheeky smile. "Good." He starts the car. "Until Hanna called the last time and interrupted us."

Avery looks over at his sister with raised eyebrows. "Seriously? Damn, sis. I guess you upped your game in my absence."

Paige scoffs. "Yea. Coming from the guy who has two best friends fighting for his attention."

He gives her a confused look. "Who?"

Paige laughs and shakes her head. "I thought I was bad."

"Just tell me, smart ass."

"Spencer practically pounced at Hanna when she was about to come with us just now." She explains.

Avery looks at her skeptically. "Yea, right."

"Why would I lie? Just do me a favor and don't string both of them along. I don't want my brother to be the one who makes my best friend fight with hers."

"You know I wouldn't do that. But tell me about Emily. What'd Hanna interrupt?"

Paige tells him what happened and they arrive at The Brew. Avery opens the door to the coffee shop for her and pats her on the back. "My sister is finally choosing her own girls instead of stealing mine."

She looks back at him and rolls her eyes. "I never stole any of them. Blame Maya for what happened with Samara and I."

Avery nods as he takes out his phone and reads the text. "Suuure." He teases before he reads off the order to the barista.

As they wait for the coffees, Paige remembers something she wanted to ask her brother. She slaps his arm lightly to get his attention. "I meant to ask you. Where are you going to live?"

"Well I saw some nice boxes on the way here." She slaps him hard this time and chuckles.

"Seriously, Av. Where?"

"I wanted to ask you if it were okay, and if you don't want me to cramp your style I'll understand." He says jokingly and she rolls her eyes.

"Tell me."

"Well Grandma left the apartment buildings she owned to me. I was wondering if you'd be okay with me living in the one across from Stanford." He says.

Paige looks at him incredulously. "Why do you have to ask me? It's yours. You can do whatever you want with it."

"I meant because you're going to Stanford and I didn't know if you'd be okay with me living right there. If you want, I'll live in the one in Sacramento."

"Don't be ridiculous, I want you as close as you can get. Plus, this way I can just walk over to your apartment and bug you all the time." She laughs and takes a couple coffees and Avery picks up the tray with the rest.

_Back at the Barn_

Hanna huffs and walks into the bedroom to get her clothes before going to get in the shower. Spencer finally gets out of bed and goes to get clothes too to take a shower in the house. Emily grabs her hand before she can make her way out. "What was that about?"

She turns around to face Emily. "What?"

"I saw that death glare you flashed Hanna when Paige asked her to come."

She shrugs and looks down at her feet. "I don't know."

"You two better not fight over a guy you just met a couple days ago. Not to mention the fact that he's your best friend's brother. You don't even know where he's staying. Just don't ruin our last few days."

Spencer scoffs lightly. "Easy for you to say. You've got Paige all to yourself."

Emily looks at her in disbelief. "What makes you think I want her all to myself?"

"Come on, Em. We all see the googly-eyes you both look at each other with. Not to mention the way you were cuddled up to her fifteen minutes ago." Spencer mocks jokingly.

A shy grin creeps across Emily's face and she finally lets go of Spencer's hand. "Shut up. I still haven't told you what happened last night."

"What happened last night?" Aria comes in the room already dressed.

"Nothing really. Hanna's amazing timing stopped anything before it happened."

Spencer laughs and opens the door. "I'm going to get in the shower. I forgot to tell you two that my mom and Melissa wants us to go with them to the indoor tennis court today. They mentioned it during Thanksgiving dinner." Then leaves to the house.

Aria looks at her outfit and huffs. "I guess that means I should change."

**I've been spoiling you guys with frequent updates and while I'd like to keep doing so, it may not always be that way. So just don't kill me if eventually I start going back to weekly ones.**

**Would you guys rather have Avery paired with Hanna or Spencer? I did already write the next chapter and already chose who he'd be with, but if I find people want him with the other, I'll change it. **

**On a different note, I'm starting to seriously consider writing a McHastings and a Panna fanfic, tell me your thoughts on that. **

**Thanks for all the encouragement :)**


	9. Chipotle

They all were caffeinated and ready to go by 10. Spencer pouted when it was decided that she and Aria would ride with her mom and sister, and the other four would pile into Avery's coupe.

Once they were on the road, Hanna couldn't resist riling the front seat up. "So McCullers, are you both ready to get your asses beat by the Hastings?"

The siblings laughed. "Yea, right. Playing tennis at a country club is a lot different than the way us McCullers play. They only have a chance if we're having an off day, even then it's slim. I don't know about you, Av, but I'm feeling pretty good today." Paige looks over at her brother and he smiles.

"I'm feeling decent." Avery says a lot more humbly than his sister.

"Wow, Avery. Your sister is pretty cocky." Emily says from behind him.

He shrugs. "She is, but not without good reason." Paige peers over her shoulder at the girl and smirks.

First game is Veronica and Spencer vs Melissa and Avery. The four others sit off to the side and watch the impressive match. In the end, Avery and Melissa win by a small margin. Hanna and Paige vs Aria and Emily come up next, and although Hanna yells every time the ball comes her way, Paige picks up the slack and ultimately wins. Hanna and Aria get Paige and Avery to face Spencer and Emily for the last warm up game and of course the siblings win.

Once they were all warmed up, they start a mini tournament. Doubles; Aria and Hanna, Emily and Veronica, Spencer and Melissa, and Paige and Avery. To make it go by faster they just play simultaneously. Spencer and Melissa beat Veronica and Emily, though surprisingly not by much. Even though Paige and Avery take it easy on Aria and Hanna, the girls just have no hope.

The final game consists of a very heated sibling rivalry. While the siblings worked their asses off, the girls watched from the sideline. Emily sat entranced over Paige in her black sports bra and barely there short shorts. Watching every one of her muscles move with every swing and twist while they glisten with her sweat. Even the others couldn't keep their eyes off of her perfectly sculpted abs. Although they were wishing her brother would take off that clingy muscle shirt, agreeing it was just a dirty tease.

The Hastings and McCullers play a lengthy and outrageously intense game. For just about the whole time it was tied and kept going back and forth with the scores towards the end. Until Paige slammed the racket into the ball as hard as she could, sending the ball to the middle full speed and the two sisters collide. Melissa hit the ball over the net, but Avery hit it right back before either of the girls could get up.

"Wooooo go Culleys!" Hanna shouts from the bleachers. The rest of them laugh at her and get up to congratulate the siblings.

"Aha! I told you I'd beat your ass, Hastings. No one ever wins a tennis match against the McCullers." Paige gloats towards Spencer who's still lying on the ground as Hanna runs to jump in her arms.

Avery laughs and shakes his head while he walks to the other side of the court and reaches a hand out to each sister to help them up. Melissa gladly takes his offer, but Spencer glares at him and mumbles something as she gets up without his help. He smirks and watches her walk over to the bleachers where her water is and storm off out of the building.

"Your sister's a sore winner." Melissa says as she smiles at him.

"Your sister's a sore loser." He smiles back and walks towards the rest of the group.

She laughs and nods. "That she is."

"That was quite impressive." Veronica says to the siblings.

Avery smiles humbly as Paige has a cocky grin plastered on her face but decides not to say anything.

"You know, I think there's an ice cream place that's open year round about twenty minutes from here. Do you want to follow us there?" Melissa says looking to Avery.

"I know what place you're talking about, we'll meet you there."

Everyone gets in their respective cars and seats. Paige is still hyped up and drumming her hands on the dash to the beat of the music. From the back, Emily watches her adorningly. She can see that the girl is still sweating, probably from how much she keeps fidgeting in her seat excitedly.

"She won't be that excited when Spencer smacks the ice cream she gets out of her hand." Hanna says to Emily.

"I think that would make her even happier. Just knowing how much she's getting under Spencer's skin."

"I'm sure you'd love to get under _her_ skin." Hanna teases causing Emily to shake her head and blush.

About fifteen minutes later the Scion arrives at the ice cream shop before the others. They wait in the car until Melissa pulls up next to them and Spencer gets out of the SUV slightly less agitated, but still visibly annoyed.

The whole gang makes their way into the ice cream place and stands in line. Avery ends up in back of Spencer at the end of the line. He lightly wraps his arms around her from behind and leans down to rest his chin on her shoulder. "You still mad at me?" He says softly and it sends shivers down Spencer's spine.

She puts her hands on top of his and shakes her head while smiling. "I'm sorry. Your sister is just one graceful winner."

He chuckles and kisses her temple quickly before untangling himself of her. "I know. But I sort of get the feeling you'd have been the same way."

She giggles and looks back at him with a smile that feigns innocence while stepping forward to place her order. "Whatever made you think that?"

They all get their ice cream and go to sit down at the tables. Well, everyone besides Paige. She's standing next to the table, bouncing on her feet.

"Do you have to pee, Paige?" Aria asks and Paige shakes her head.

"Nope. Why?"

Aria just smirks and shakes her head lightly. "No reason."

"Actually, can you hold this for me?" She hands her ice cream cone off to Hanna and turns to walk out of the shop. "I'll be right back."

Everyone left looks at each other weird before going back to their side conversations. Ten minutes later, Paige comes through the door again breathing hard. She walks over to her previous position and takes the cone from Hanna. "Thanks."

They all look at her with the same expression as when she left and smile. "Did you just run around the building or something?" Hanna asks.

Paige shakes her head as she licks the untouched ice cream. "No. I ran around the block a few times."

"Why?"

She shrugs. "I was just really amped up. I figured running a little would wear it off some." Spencer scoffs and finishes her ice cream.

Emily takes advantage of the view she currently has of the auburn haired girl's abdomen. Paige still hasn't put on her sweatshirt, so she's standing across from her in a black sports bra. She can see the girl's sweat dripping down her abs and can't help but lick her ice cream cone seductively, wishing it wasn't just ice cream she was licking. _What I'd do to be able to lick that sweat right off. _She slightly blushes at her own thoughts. Then rakes her eyes up Paige's chest to watch her tilt her head and lick some ice cream that was dripping over the sides. _Kill me now._

Avery nudges Emily out of her thoughts. "You're getting ice cream all over your sleeves." He laughs when he sees her jump and realizes he startled her. "Sorry. You can go back to ogling my sister."

Emily snaps her head to face Avery with wide eyes. "I. No. I wasn't."

He chuckles and nods as he finishes his own ice cream. "Whatever you say."

"My mom and I actually have somewhere to go after this, do you think maybe you could squeeze Aria and Spencer with you?" Melissa leans over from her table and asks Avery.

He smiles and nods. "Yea, we'll be good." They all get up to throw their trash away and say goodbye to the two ladies.

"Thanks so much. I'll see you all at the house." Veronica says to Avery before walking out the door.

"You did amazing on the court, maybe we could play again some time when we're both back in Rosewood?" Melissa says as she grazes her hand from his shoulder all the way down his arm and smiles flirtatiously at him. The girls all watch with very different expressions on their faces.

He smiles politely at her and nods. "Sure. See you later." She grins and follows her mom.

Once they see her get in the car and drive away, Paige and Emily burst into laughter as Aria smirks and Hanna and Spencer stand there fuming.

Avery just shakes his head and holds the door open, motioning for them to walk through. "This is going to be fun."

"How are we doing this?" Emily says, still smirking.

"Aria sits in the front with the seat pushed up, Spencer sits in back of me, Hanna in the middle and Emily can sit on Paige's lap in back of Aria." Avery says, opening the door and pushing the back of the seat down. Avery, Spencer, Hanna, and Paige all get situated. Once they're good, she pats her thighs to signal to Emily to sit down. Avery pushes the seat up and Aria gets in.

"Comfortable?" Avery says as he starts the car. He waits till he hears a series of yea's and then pulls out of the parking lot.

As they drive, Paige can feel Emily slowly lean back into her to get comfortable. She chuckles lightly after it's been ten minutes and the girl is still creeping back. Paige puts her hands on Emily's sides and gently coaxes her to lean back all the way. "I don't bite." Emily looks over her shoulder to flash her a smile. "Hard." Paige teases as the girl looks back again this time with a raised eyebrow and seductive eyes.

Emily planned on trying to just sit on the girl's lap without really touching her. It was only because they needed room, not because Paige wanted her there. But once she felt the girl's hands on her sides, she couldn't resist trying to get as close to her as possible. She shifts a little and rests part of her back against the car. Paige feels her move on top of her and lifts her right arm to put her elbow on the window.

"Em, why don't you lift your legs up and put them across us?" Hanna says as she sees them both slowly moving to get comfortable. She takes Emily's legs and does just that before the girl can protest.

Emily looks to Paige as if to see whether she was okay with it. Paige just smiles at her and she takes that as a yes. Emily takes it one step further and rests her head on her shoulder. She lets out the breath she was holding when she feels the other girl lean her head up against Emily's. Paige drapes her arm over Emily's thighs, hoping she wasn't pushing her luck. After a couple minutes they finally relax against the other, both of them relishing in the close proximity.

"What are we doing now?" Hanna asks.

Avery shrugs. "What do you want to do?" He glances in the rearview.

"Well it's only three." Emily says.

"There's like nothing left for us to do all weekend. Besides watching movies and eating." Hanna says and Paige chuckles from under Emily.

"We could spend the weekend at my cabin. It has three beds, so we won't be squished. It's not really that cold either, considering it's almost December." Spencer offers.

"Hell yes! I love cabins!" Paige says excitedly. Emily giggles causing Paige to shiver when she feels the girl's breath on her neck. Emily lifts her head to smirk and see the girl's reaction. Paige grins at her and they suddenly stop listening to the conversation that's going on around them to stare into each other's eyes.

"They're so cheesy, it's ridiculous." Spencer peers over at Emily and Paige. Everyone else laughs when neither of the girls even hear her.

"I guess no one wants to go to the cabin. I thought it was a good idea." Avery practically yells.

Paige snaps out of it to protest. "No! Come on, guys. We have to go."

Avery chuckles along with the rest of the car. "Relax, P. We're heading to Spencer's now to get our stuff." She huffs and rests her head on Emily's shoulder when she figures out that everyone's making fun of her. Emily giggles again and rests her arm across Paige's shoulder.

"I'm going to head out to get some stuff to cook. I'll be back in a couple hours." Avery goes to leave.

"Wait like five minutes and I'll go with you. I'm almost done putting my stuff away." Spencer says from the room she chose.

He sits down on the couch and watches TV. Chances are, five minutes will turn into twenty. Paige sits down next to him along with Hanna. The three of them hear a stomach rumble and they all chuckle.

"Maybe I should just be picking up take out?" Avery asks as he looks to his sister and Hanna. They both nod. "What do you guys want?"

"Chipotle!" Paige and Hanna say at the same time. Emily and Aria walk into the room and sit down on a chair.

"Did I hear Chipotle?" Aria asks.

"You did. Are you two cool with that? Spencer and I can stop somewhere else, too." He looks to both of them as Spencer comes in.

"No, that's okay. I love that place." Aria says and looks over at Emily.

"Me too. I don't know if Spencer likes it, though."

"Likes what?" she asks.

"Chipotle." Paige says.

Spencer nods. "Yea, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just starving."

"Alright, we'll be back. Just text us if you guys want anything else." Avery and Spencer walk out the door and go on their way.

"Can I ask you something?" Spencer says after contemplating for forty five minutes whether or not to say anything.

"I believe you just did." Avery smirks at her.

She rolls her eyes and slaps his thigh. "You know what I mean."

"What's up?" He looks over at her, seriously this time.

"Never mind, it's a stupid question."

"Spencer Hastings asking a stupid question? That's unheard of."

"Har har." She says slightly irritated and shifts in her seat to lean against the window.

Avery reaches over and lightly squeezes her thigh. "Nothing you could ever ask me would be stupid." He says softly. She turns to look at him as he flashes her a small smile. "You won't know until you ask."

Spencer sighs lightly and tries to think of a way to word her question. "I don't want you to think I'm some weirdo."

"Too late for that." He smirks when she glares at him. "Come on, Spencer. I'm not going to think you're just some weirdo."

"I don't know what to ask first."

"Whichever one's the hardest for you to ask."

"Do you like Hanna or my sister? I know I sound desperate right now, but I just want to know."

Avery shuts the car off in the parking lot and looks over at Spencer. She's looking straight ahead and playing with her hands nervously. "You don't sound desperate. There's no need to be nervous."

She looks at him with desperation. "Answer the question."

"No."

"Why not? You just coaxed me to ask you, but now you won't answer."

He shakes his head. "That's my answer. No I don't _like_ Hanna or Melissa."

She turns her head, embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. Is that all you wanted to know?"

"No. But I don't want.."

He grabs her chin lightly and turns her to face him. "How is it that a girl as beautiful as you has such a hard time asking _anyone,_ _anything_?"

_There it is again. That feeling. _She smiles somewhat nervously.

"You don't need to be afraid or nervous or insecure around me. I won't ever judge you."

"You make me incredibly nervous, Avery."

He chuckles. "You make me incredibly nervous too, Spencer."

"How do you hide it so well?" She asks in disbelief.

"If you feel like you can't be brave, I'll be brave for you. Even when I'm not brave myself."

They sit there just staring into each other's eyes for what feels like an eternity. Spencer can feel her eyes watering but she quickly blinks them away. "I've only known you for two days, but I feel like I've known you forever." She says and Avery just smiles and keeps searching her eyes. "Would you think I'm a creep if I told you I think that my heart knew you existed before my mind did?"

He shakes his head and leans over the center console to kiss her forehead.

They get out of the car and go to get the food. "But I would think you're a creep if you told me that that's why you had sex with my sister." She turns around to look at him horrified. "Come on, you think you're the only one who tells the people you're close to who you have sex with?"

_Back at the cabin_

"We should have a fire tonight." Hanna says and everyone agrees.

"I'll go look for some sticks and stuff. Text them saying we need firewood and s'mores." Paige gets up and walks out the back door, Emily following close behind. "I'm guessing you've been here before?" Paige looks over at Emily.

She nods and smiles at her. "Yea. Quite a few times. We practically lived here during summer breaks."

"I used to love the act of camping."

Emily looks at her smirking lightly. "That's one way to word it."

Paige laughs. "Yea. I guess I just didn't like the camp I went to."

"Why not? I thought you just said you loved it."

"That's why I worded it like that. I loved the act of camping, just not the camp I was at. Specifically the people in it." She says as she picks up a nice looking stick.

"Now I get it. Why didn't you like the people?"

"Forget it. It wasn't fair of me to say I didn't like the people, more like one person in particular. I don't know what's wrong with me."

Emily looks at her concerned. "There's nothing wrong with you. If someone pissed you off, I could see why you wouldn't want to go back to that specific camp."

Paige scoffs. "I suppose you could say that."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugs and counts the sticks in her hands. "I got enough for s'mores." Paige starts walking back to the cabin.

"You know, if you want to talk, I'm here. I don't want you to be mad because you're thinking about it."

"It's no big deal. I wouldn't want to talk negatively about one of your friends."

Emily looks at her confused now. "What do you mean one of my friends? Who are you talking about?"

Paige sets the sticks down next to the lawn chairs and puts her hands in her pockets when she faces Emily. "Alison."

"DiLaurentis?" Paige nods. "You know her from camp?"

She nods again. "And school."

Emily furrows her brow. "School? Where did you go to school with her?"

"Rosewood."

"You lived in Rosewood?"

"Yup. Second grade."

Paige watches Emily as the wheels turn in her head. "Paige McCullers." She mumbles. Then looks up to Paige like a light bulb went off. "I knew I recognized you and your brother from somewhere."

Paige nods and smirks but it doesn't reach her eyes.

"You went to camp with her right before she disappeared."

"Yea."

"What'd she do?" Emily says, her words tinted with concern.

Paige tells her what happened, proud of herself that she seemed pretty emotionless throughout the story.

"I'm so sorry. I wish I would have known."

Paige shakes her head. "You should really stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault. It was years ago, anyway."

"Still, I know what it's like to come out on someone else's terms."

She shrugs. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. At least I didn't have to initiate any of the awkward conversations." Paige smiles at her.

Emily shakes her head in disbelief and smiles back. "How can you always turn the shittiest things into something positive?"

"I don't. I just take the positive out of the shitty things and focus on that instead of the shittiness of the shittiest things."

Emily smiles. "For some reason, that sounds even better."

Paige shrugs. "Could be all the forms of shit."

Emily chuckles and pushes her shoulder lightly. "You're such a dork."

"Do you mind?" she looks at her and Emily catches the slightest bit of fear in her eyes.

"Mind what?"

She shuffles on her feet and looks down to try to mask her insecurity. "That I'm a dork."

"Yes." Paige lifts her head up and revealing the fear evident in them now. "I mind it because it's insanely adorable. I'd be a fool if I didn't."

Paige dips her head to hide to her cheesy grin and burning cheeks. Emily steps closer and lifts Paige's face up to look at her. "I'd also be a fool if I didn't finish what we started last night before we were so rudely interrupted."

Paige's smile get impossibly wider and Emily leans in to kiss her. They keep eye contact until the very second their lips touch. Emily stops leaning in once she feels the faintest touch of their lips and her heart stops. Paige gently grabs her chin to coax her closer. When Paige deepens the kiss, Emily wraps her arms around her neck. Paige wraps one arm around Emily's back to pull their bodies flush and moves her hand from her chin to her cheek. Emily tangles one of her hands in Paige's hair and pulls ever so slightly on it, eliciting a moan.

"I've never heard of people taking this long to get six sticks." They hear Hanna say from the porch. "Oh my God! Aria! Come here!"

Emily and Paige stop kissing and move to rest their foreheads against each other and chuckle.

"I guess we're just destined for rude interruptions." Paige says through a smile.

**Anything special you guys want while they're at the cabin?**


	10. Pure Seduction

"What's in the brown bag?" Hanna asks Avery after they all finish eating.

"Presents." Spencer replies for him and he smirks.

Hanna smiles at him. "I like the sound of that." As she walks over to peek into the bag.

Spencer swats her hand away and Hanna gives her a dirty look. "I didn't say we could open them now. You guys wanted to light a fire. As hilarious as it would be, I don't want anyone falling into the pit."

"We could just have a fire tomorrow night instead." Emily says from the armrest she's sitting on while Paige sits in the chair. Paige nods along with Aria and Avery. Spencer goes and sits next to Avery on the couch.

"Em's getting smarter than you, Spence." Hanna says and picks up the bag by the top before walking to set it on the counter. They all hear a tearing sound and Avery jolts up from the couch, ripping his arm out from behind Spencer and catches the bottles before they hit the ground. Hanna giggles nervously and looks up at Avery with an innocent smile.

"Yea, we usually don't let Hanna handle the liquor." Aria says when everyone except Spencer laughs at the scene. Instead, she scowls at Hanna when hers and Avery's hands linger far too long for her liking.

Avery smirks at Hanna as he places them on the counter and goes to find the cups. She goes and sits down on the floor in front of Paige and Emily. Both of them slowly inching closer and closer to the other.

"You drink this straight or you guys need me to mix you up something fruity?" He teases as he sets the cups on the counter.

"Make them all something different." Paige says as she gets up and pours herself a drink.

Avery nods and starts rummaging through the cabinets and fridge.

Hanna goes and fetches the deck of cards from the junk drawer. "Blackjack, anyone?"

"Wow, Han. I'm surprised you aren't forcing us to play _Truth or Dare_ or _Never Have I Ever." _Spencer quips.

"I figured we should get at least a little buzzed before we start on _those_ games." Hanna smirks and starts shuffling the cards.

Spencer gets up and walks over to the island. Avery has taken out quite a few things from the fridge along with a few glasses and pulls out a travel mug from the cabinet to put ice in it.

Spencer gives him a curious look. "Going somewhere?"

Avery smiles and walks over to start pouring Grey Goose into the mug. "No, nosey."

She smiles and watches him pour a couple different juices without as much as a single judgment of amount, as far as Spencer can tell at least. "Is there anything you aren't good at?"

"I suck at memorizing random facts." Avery smirks at her as he pours the concoction into the glass. "And history. I always despised history." He takes a shot glass and pours some tequila and Sprite in simultaneously. "Get ready."

After cupping the top and banging it on the side of the brown marble island, he brings it up to Spencer's mouth. She looks surprised for a moment, but puts her lips on the glass and lets him knock it back down her throat. "I told you to get ready." Avery chuckles and goes back to mixing the girl's drinks.

"Who wants to be the dealer first?" Hanna asks.

Paige takes the deck from her hand. "Me. I have the worst luck with this game."

They move the furniture around the coffee table before taking all the crap off of it and picking their seats. Hanna and Aria sit on the spacious couch, while Emily's moved to sit on Paige's lap on the chair, and Spencer waits for Avery to get comfortable on the loveseat. Avery starts bringing the glasses over and setting them down in front of each girl. They all take a sip and seem to be satisfied with them.

"What is this?" Spencer asks him as he sits down next to her after putting the bottles on the table with shot glasses.

"You have a Brass Monkey. I have a Rusty Nail. Hanna has a Hawaiian Vodka. Aria, a Bay Breeze. Emily, a Painkiller. And Paige, her water." He says, pointing at each mentioned drink. Paige chuckles when Emily leans over to inspect her drink and looks at her confused.

"Well I love mine. How did you know which ones we'd like?" Aria asks, genuinely interested.

Avery shrugs and drinks. "They fit your personalities."

"Paige! Deal. We have to get drunk so we can play _Truth or Dare._" Hanna whines.

They all laugh and Paige deals the cards out somewhat awkwardly with Emily obstructing her reach. "Wait, how do we know when we drink?" Emily asks no one in particular.

"Whenever you bust or lose, you take a shot. The cocktails are just chasers." Paige says as Avery picks up a bottle in each hand facing Emily and shakes them lightly for dramatics.

"Watch how drunk Spencer will be after she busts a couple times." Emily teases and Spencer glares at her.

"I love trashed Spencer, she thinks of the best dares." Hanna pipes up.

After about five rounds of 21 everyone has a decent buzz, except for Spencer. She is indeed trashed already. Hanna and Aria keep whispering and laughing together about god knows what, Spencer is practically laying on top of Avery, while Paige and Emily are sitting in their chair getting pretty handsy.

"Never Have I Ever kissed anyone in this room." Aria says out of nowhere.

Hanna, Emily, Paige, and Spencer all put one finger down. Everyone looks to Hanna in astonishment. "Who'd you kiss in here?" Paige asks for the group.

"Your girl." Hanna wiggles her eyebrows at Paige and giggles. Emily looks away, cheeks flushed. "I wanted to know what all the fuss was about." Hanna shrugs and begins to think of a phrase. "Never Have I Ever…. eaten carpet." She says with a devilish smirk and Aria coughs her drink all over her.

"Really, Han? You just couldn't resist." Emily says while she shakes her head with a bit of amusement. Avery and Paige are the only ones who put a finger down. Everyone else looks at Emily curiously. She rolls her eyes before replying. "Just because I'm a lesbian, doesn't mean I've done that."

"I really just wanted to know if Spencer did. I didn't mean to disappoint Paige." Hanna says with a light shrug and Avery chuckles as Spencer elbows him in the ribs. Paige's eyes open impossibly wide and Emily hides her face in her hands.

"Never Have I Ever woken up crying and screaming in my batman pjs, making my sibling think I'm getting murdered, just so when they come into the room I tell them that I had a nightmare about my teddy bear getting ripped to pieces by a fluffy killer bunny. When I was thirteen." Avery speaks up and Paige gives him the dirtiest look as she puts one finger down. All the girls start laughing hysterically.

Once Emily wipes the tears from her eyes, she turns to look at Paige trying desperately to keep a straight face. "That must've been some fluffy killer bunny."

The girl moves her glare towards Emily. "Ha. Ha." She says mockingly before looking away while sporting a pouty face. Emily giggles and take Paige's chin in her hand to turn the girl's face and place a chaste kiss on her pout. When she pulls away she watches Paige's pout turn into a sly smile before opening her eyes.

Paige searches Emily's eyes for a few moments and takes the raven haired girl's face in her hands to pull her in for another, more passionate kiss. At first Emily is surprised by the intensity of the kiss, with it being so seemingly random. To Paige it was anything but, when she was looking in the girl's eyes she saw something she thought she'd never see in any girl's gaze towards her, let alone one as beautiful inside and out as Emily. Genuine admiration. Or maybe it was the whiskey she'd been taking generous gulps of throughout the night. Either way, nothing she'd ever experienced had felt nearly as good as this woman's lips on her own.

"Get a room!" Spencer slurs out. Paige lets her hands fall to Emily's legs and they both watch Spencer amusingly. Avery chuckles when she tries to get up and point towards the hallway for emphasis, but instead trips on his foot and almost falls right across his lap before he catches her. "Jesus Avery. Your feet are so goddamn big." She looks at him furiously and he can't help but laugh at her antics.

"Sorry. I'll try to do something about that for you." He helps her sit down safely and puts his arm across her thighs to make sure she doesn't try to get up any time soon.

"I think it's time for Truth or Dare. Never Have I Ever isn't as fun as it used to be." Hanna says and the rest of the group agrees. "Good. Spencer, it's your turn."

Spence looks to Avery through glossy eyes. "Truth or Dare."

"Truth. No way I'm being your first victim."

"Who'd you lose your virginity to?" She asks with a smirk.

He looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "Who said I lost it?"

Spencer eyes him disbelievingly. "You put a finger down when Hanna said her Never Have I Ever."

"Yea. Because I've literally eaten carpet before." He says with a serious face before cracking up when Spencer gives him a horrified look. "Samara. I lost my virginity to Samara."

She slaps his shoulder hard enough for everyone to hear a loud smack and he chuckles. "Aria, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What was the first song you had sex to?" Avery asks after a beat.

Aria thinks for a second. "Honestly, I have no idea. Ezra always had the weirdest taste in music. Jake's is a lot better."

"I almost forgot about Fitz. It was always weird when he was around. I'm so glad you're with Jake now." Spencer says and Aria nods.

"Borringg. Paige, your turn." Hanna says impatiently.

Paige looks around at the group contemplating which person to choose. Her eyes land on Spencer and she smirks. "Spence, truth or dare?"

"Dare." Spencer says, accepting the silent challenge she knows her best friend is asking for.

"I dare you to switch seats with Hanna for the rest of the night."

Avery watches while Spencer gets up and practically burns a hole through Paige with her glare before sitting next to Aria. Hanna smiles and gladly takes Spencer's seat next to Avery. The guy looks at his sister questioningly, trying to decide whether or not he should be mad.

"I'm really bad at these, Aria you go." Emily pipes up.

"Hanna, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" She slurs out as she props her elbow on Avery's thigh.

"I dare you to make out with Paige for thirty seconds." Aria replies and Emily flashes her a dirty look. She reluctantly gets up off the girl's lap and lets the blonde take her place. Paige looks at her apologetically before Hanna captures her lips in her own. If she weren't as drunk as she is, she probably would've sat there completely still and let Hanna do all of the work. But seeing as she is very intoxicated and Hanna is undoubtedly attractive, she finds herself happily accepting the blonde's tongue in her mouth and reciprocating the kiss.

Emily sits next to Avery, fuming. The tiny part of Emily that's still not completely drunk knows her rage is foolish and unnecessary. Hanna is her straight best friend and she's doing it because she got dared, not to mention she is also very tipsy. Which is probably the only reason why they both appear to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. _Calm the hell down. You had your first real interaction with this girl yesterday. There is absolutely no reason for you being this jealous over something so meaningless. _

But she is drunk, and she is jealous, she's infuriated, she can't control it and she has no idea why the sight is effecting her this intensely. "You guys can come up for air now, you know." The words came out with a lot more emotion than Emily intended it to, the sentence slithering out through clenched teeth not helping in the least.

Paige and Hanna pull away from each other and Hanna goes to get up before Emily speaks up again. "No, it's fine. You can stay there. I'm more comfortable here anyway." _Shut up, Emily. _Paige looks at her guiltily, with a twinge of hurt. She didn't think Emily would be _that_ mad, after all it was just a dare. Maybe she did take it a little too far. _Good job, McCullers. You've already fucked up._ Hanna shrugs and gets comfortable on Paige's lap, somehow oblivious to Emily's obvious anger. "My turn. Truth or dare?" She says to no one in particular.

"Who are you asking, Han?" Aria says for the rest of the group.

"Everyone."

Emily rolls her eyes while everyone else chuckles. "You can't ask everyone. You have to choose someone."

"Pleaaase. I've got a really good one." Hanna whines.

"Fine. Dare." Spencer says, knowing the blonde will never give up.

Hanna smiles triumphantly. "I dare all of you to go skinny dipping in the lake."

"How'd I know?" Spencer says rhetorically as they get up and start heading outside.

"I'm not doing that." Emily stays seated on the couch with her arms crossed on her chest.

"C'mon, Em. Don't be a party pooper." Aria says.

"No. You guys go. I'm heading to bed, I don't feel good."

Avery fills all six shot glasses, finishing off the bottles of whiskey and vodka. "Go ahead, Aria. We'll be out in a minute." Aria nods and walks out of the sliding doors to meet up with the rest. Avery slides three of the glasses towards Emily and sits down next to her. He picks one up and holds it out in front of Emily. "Take these down with me." Emily looks at him for a moment before taking the shot and knocking it down. They take them all down and sit there for a couple minutes. "I get why you're mad, believe me. But I know my sister, and I know that she'll be kicking herself in the ass about it enough for the both of you." He looks over at her to study her face. "I can tell she really likes you."

Emily faces him and tries to figure out whether he's just putting in a good word for his sister, or is actually being truthful. "You really think so?"

He nods and takes the bottle of rum to chug down the rest of that. "Yea. I haven't really been around for a while, but the way she looks at you. I've never seen her look at anyone else like that. I'd say you two are crazy for the way you're acting after one day, but I get it. I'm sure I look at Spencer the same way." He offers her his hand. "Let's go."

She shakes her head vigorously, regretting it once she feels the pounding in her head intensify.

"What do I have to do to make you feel better?" He asks. "If you want, I'll let you kiss me to get back at her." He says jokingly with a smirk on his face and she looks at him and chuckles before pushing him hard enough that he topples over onto his side. He gets up fast, picks her up and flings her over his shoulder. "That's it, Fields. Skinny dipping or not, your ass is getting in that water."

She screams as he runs out of the still open sliding door and soon into the freezing cold lake. He picks her up off his shoulder and throws her all the way in while the rest of them cheer him on. After the initial shock, she manages to grabs onto his ankles and pulls them towards her so he falls back into the water too. When they both surface, she dunks his head under water before Hanna screams out. "Chicken!"

"Hell yes!" Aria and Spencer say at the same time.

"I call Avery." Spencer says as she pads over to him.

"That's not fair! Avery's like six feet!" Paige says. "Hanna or Aria should be with him since they're the shortest."

Hanna claps excitedly before doggy paddling to him, though she's in two feet of water and walking would've sufficed. Once she gets in front of him, he picks her up out of the water and effortlessly lifts her onto his shoulders.

"I'm glad we decided against skinny dipping. Chicken would've been pretty awkward." Aria says and waits for Emily to squat so she can get on hers. Spencer doing the same with Paige.

"I probably would've won if Spencer wasn't so damn trashed." Paige says.

"I'm surprised you held me up, Han." Avery says while laughing.

Hanna shows off her muscles. "You shouldn't be. Look at these suckers." Everyone laughs.

Aria looks towards the cabin. "So, who's getting the towels?"

"I volunteer Avery. He weighs the most, so he's the warmest." Hanna says.

He chuckles and starts walking towards shore. "I'm not sure that's how it works."

"Whatever. Don't start going all Spencer on me, I get that enough from Spencer."

Spencer pushes Hanna. She loses her footing and falls over, but not before grabbing Spencer's arm and tugging her down with her. "What the hell, Spencer!" Hanna yells when they pop back up, starting a splash fight.

The other three watch in amusement as they drunkenly splash each other until Avery comes back with the towels. He sees them and swims over. "What are they fighting about?" He asks.

"I don't really know." Paige says while chuckling.

"We better stop them before they hurt themselves." Aria half jokes and goes over to them. She tries to get in the middle, but just ends up getting splashed herself. Paige grabs Spencer from behind and carries her out of the water and Avery does the same with Hanna. Both girls stills splashing each other along the way.

"Avery let go of me! That bitch tried to drown me! I could've died! She knows I can't swim well!" Hanna yells as she flails her arms and kicks her legs. Avery laughs and continues their way into the cabin.

"Yea! Let her go! You shouldn't even be touching her!" Spencer says, mimicking Hanna's actions in Paige's hold. Avery looks at Spencer sort of shocked. Not understanding what Spencer really meant, he thought he could be actually hurting the blonde, and he let her go. As soon as he sets Hanna down, she lunges towards Spencer and goes to push her, forgetting Paige was the one actually walking for the both of them. Paige loses her balance and releases her grasp on Spencer, but instead of the girl falling down too, Spencer somehow manages to gain balance and push Hanna back.

Avery catches the blonde before she falls and Emily comes over to take hold of her and drag her into the cabin. "That's it! You two are being ridiculous!" Emily yells. Spencer glares at Avery and walks up the steps, stumbling up a step. Avery grabs hold of her by the arm to prevent her from falling. Once she stands straight up, she rips her arm out of his hold and storms off into the cabin, wobbling the whole way. Paige follows, leaving Aria and Avery too look at each other confused, amused, and slightly annoyed.

"Are they always like this when they're drunk?" Avery asks.

Aria shakes her head. "They usually get along scary well whenever we drink together. They usually fight with Emily." Both of them walk into the cabin to find the four of them in the living room in similar positions as outside.

"Do you guys even know why you're fighting!?" Emily asks exasperatedly.

"I don't know! Spencer has been giving me dirty looks for the past two days! I'm not even doing anything wrong." Hanna says with a huff at the end.

"God, will you two please just go to bed and talk about whatever mess this really is tomorrow. My head is fucking killing me from _someone_ pushing me onto the ground." Paige exclaims, shooting Hanna a glare with the last statement.

Hanna looks away somewhat embarrassedly, mumbling. "Sorry."

"Yea, we should really get to sleep. We want to be able to actually do something on our last full day together." Aria says, trying to calm everyone down. Everyone agrees and goes to get changed.

The original bed arrangements were Emily and Paige, Aria and Hanna, and Spencer and Avery. But those don't really seem to fit anymore, seeing as the only ones being civil in that set up is Hanna and Aria. Once they all take turns taking showers, Hanna and Aria go to sleep in their room, while Emily keeps her bed and Paige goes to Avery's. Emily didn't necessarily tell her not to sleep in the bed, but she didn't want to make her uncomfortable so she figured it'd be better off to sleep with her brother. Especially since Spencer doesn't seem too happy with him either.

Emily instantly felt bad when she saw Paige walk into her brother's bedroom, knowing that the girl was only doing it because she thought Emily didn't want her in theirs. Now she's laying down, mentally scolding herself for overreacting. Hoping that Paige would just come into the room and crawl into the bed and wrap her arms around her like she had last night. It was ridiculous how quickly she got used to the girl just being around her. When she wasn't close to her, she felt a little less together. That scared her. The fact that someone she barely knew, affected her as much as this girl does. After waiting a half an hour, she huffs and turns on her side, finally letting sleep take her.

Avery is the last to get out of the shower and decides he still has enough energy to go and clean the kitchen and living room. He finds Spencer sleeping on the couch, and decides to clean the glasses and tidy up the rooms before picking her up and carrying her to the bed they were supposed to share. He places her under the covers next to his sister. "Go into your bed." He whispers to her, knowing she was still awake without having to look.

"She doesn't want me to. I don't blame her. I had sex with one of her best friends, and now I made out with another one right in front of her." Paige says dejectedly.

Avery walks over to the other side of the bed and rips the covers off his sulking sister. "She does want you to. Haven't I taught you anything about women? When she pushes you away, it's only because she wants you to pull her even closer. Stop that self-pity and wallowing in your sorrow stuff, P. Now get your ass in your own bed, before I put you in there myself." He backs up his threat by sliding his arms under her legs and back. She laughs lightly and puts her hand on his chest to push him away.

She gets up and hugs him. "I'm really glad you're home." She knows neither of them are really "home", but to them the only "home" they ever really had was when they were with each other.

"I am too. Go be a sappy drunk in your room now." Avery jokes and releases her from the hug after kissing the top of her head.

Paige rolls her eyes and even though he can't see it, he knows she did. "Night, Av."

"Night, clown." He says, his smile evident in his tone. He walks out of the bedroom and goes to sleep on the couch after placing a couple Advil's on the nightstand next to Spencer along with a Gatorade.

Paige walks down the hall and stands with her hand on the doorknob for about five minutes before slowly opening the door. She knew Emily had to be asleep considering how much the girl drank. She walked over to the bed and took the time to soak in Emily's appearance under the moonlight shining through the window at the head of the bed. While she's trying to burn all the girl's features into her memory, she sees her eyebrows furrow. _Maybe she senses me in here and really doesn't want me to be._ Probably, Paige didn't know how she could even think that she had a chance with Emily. Not wanting to disturb the girl's sleep anymore, she goes to leave the room. Right when she opens the door again she hears a whisper. "Paige?"

She turns around and looks at the girl laying on the bed. "I was just getting something out of the drawer. I'm sorry I woke you up." She lies.

Emily wipes her eyes before running her hand through her hair and sitting up. "Where are you going to sleep?"

Paige shifts uncomfortably on her feet. "Um. I was going to sleep in Avery's bed."

"Why? I thought you were sleeping here?" Emily knew exactly why, but she didn't know how to being apologizing for the temper tantrum she had a few hours ago.

The effortless beauty looked down at her feet nervously. "I didn't think you wanted me to anymore." She breathes out just above a whisper.

_Emily, you're such an asshole. She really is beating herself up for it. _"I'm sorry." Emily lets out after a moment.

"It was my fault. I understand why you don't want me to, you don't have to feel bad. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Avery doesn't mind."

Emily shakes her head. "No, Paige. Please just come to bed. We can talk about it in the morning." She looks at the girl standing in the doorway. When she can literally see Paige debating with herself, she gets up from the bed and takes the girl's face in her hands. "Come, please." She whispers, staring into her eyes. Paige nods lightly and Emily brings a hand down to grasp one of hers and lead her to the bed.

Immediately when they get under the covers, Emily reaches for Paige's hand and pulls her close. She turns on her back and wraps Paige's arm around her and snuggles her back into the girl's front. Paige can't help but take in the amazing smell of Emily's body wash. She knows that smell. But from where? _Great, now I won't be able to sleep until I figure this out. _Right before Emily drifts back to sleep, Paige remembers. "Pure seduction." She says, interrupting Emily's almost slumber.

Em turns her head back as far as she can and says over her shoulder. "What?"

"Pure seduction. The fragrance. That's what you smell like. I mean, not that I'm like intentionally sniffing you. It's just I can't really smell anything else." Paige says nervously. _Shut up, Paige. You sound like such a creep._

Emily chuckles and snuggles further into Paige. "Right." She feels the girl tense behind her and knows she's embarrassed. But with no logical reason because Emily found it incredibly adorable.

She shifts onto her back and Paige automatically retreats, thinking she definitely blew it this time. Paige berates herself, while she's in the middle of telling herself how much of a royal ass she is, she suddenly feels those soft lips on hers. Emily brings her hand up behind Paige's neck to bring her down so she can lay back and smiles into the kiss. "You're adorable." She says against her lips. "And right. It is pure seduction." She gives her one more chaste kiss before shifting back to their previous position. "Now sleep, dork."

Paige smiles and places a kiss on Emily's shoulder before drifting to sleep.

**I'm really sorry it took me long to update. I had a tough time motivating myself to even start this chapter mainly because I had no idea what to do with some of the things people wanted. I tried to get as much in as possible, and I'm sorry if I didn't point the story in the direction you wanted, but there were so many directions and I could only choose one. I've been sitting here since about eight writing this on and off, and for the majority of the time I was stressing it because I thought it was going to be the shortest chapter yet, and here it is now the longest one. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Criticism, suggestions, wants, needs, likes, whatever is always loved and appreciated. If it weren't for all the people demanding updates it probably wouldn't have gotten written until next week xD. Sorry for the long rant. ****_Shut up, Sylas. No one cares._**** Good day. **


	11. Wink Murder

Emily wakes up with her head nuzzled in Paige's neck and her arm across her stomach. She squints to see the digital clock on the nightstand _8:13. How am I alive at this time? _She smiles when she feels Paige pull her closer. After a few minutes of just breathing in Paige, she hears shuffling in the kitchen. _I guess I'm not the only one. _Emily gets up and slips on the first hoodie she finds on the floor. When she walks into the kitchen, she's not surprised that Spencer is the one up. But she is surprised to see that she's actually making breakfast. "You shouldn't have." Emily says playfully as she sits down on the barstool.

Spencer looks up from the pan and gives Emily her best possible smile, which is very weak at the moment. "Hey, Em. I'm surprised you're up."

"Any other day I'd say I can't say the same for you, but considering how shitfaced you were last night, I am a little."

"I may have gotten shitfaced, but I didn't flip out over a dare." Spencer grins and flips the pancake.

"God, don't remind me. I feel like crap. She's so sweet and I just totally made her feel like it was her fault." Emily tangles both her hands in her hair and holds her head up.

"I don't think I've ever seen you that jealous." Spencer says both jokingly and seriously.

"Coming from the girl who was about to rip her best friend's head off because of her jealousy."

Spencer glares up at her for a second before focusing back on the food. "So it wasn't a dream" She says disappointedly. She knew it wasn't, but she had hoped. Which she hardly ever does.

Emily scoffs amusedly. "Far from it. You went from zero to sixty in like, a millisecond."

"I know. It's just I don't know if Hanna really likes him or she's just being Hanna."

"Ask her."

It's Spencer's turn to scoff. "Yea, that'd go over well. You know, I never used to be the jealous type."

Emily nods and gets up to get some juice. "Me either. Maybe they have some McCullers spell or something."

"Well we are both falling for them fairly quick." Spencer says honestly.

Emily stops searching through the fridge to look back at Spencer like she's crazy. "What do you mean "falling for them"? I'm not falling for anyone. She's just different."

Spencer grins and nods slowly. "Alright. Whatever you say. You guys are good now, though. Right? She went to sleep in your room after she left my bed?"

Emily nods and sits back down. "Yea. Took some convincing for her to actually get into bed though. She really thinks I was like pissed at her or something."

Spencer shakes her head. "That's not really her problem, it's what she thinks of herself that holds her back. I mean, sure, it makes her think that you're mad at her. But the main thing is she'll convince herself that what she did was wrong and put herself down for it. She seems really confident most of the time, but once you get to know her, you can tell she's insanely unsure of herself. It sucks because she's an amazing person, she just doesn't realize it."

"Great, so I'm just making it worse." Emily says dejectedly.

"Well I mean, not to be a buzzkill, Em, but you two live on different coasts."

"I don't want to think about that right now. I haven't felt like this about anyone, like ever. And it's not like I'm dating anyone in my school. I mean I know I always said I'd never do long distance, but it could work." She looks up to see Spencer looking at her with an amused smirk. "Ugh, I'm falling for her." She gets up. "I'm going to take another shower. Hopefully wash some of the pathetic away." Emily sulks and goes to get in the shower.

When Spencer finishes making the breakfast she made for Hanna, she brings it into the room and sets it on the nightstand. "It's gonna take a lot more than just pancakes if you're trying to get me to forgive you." Hanna says as Spencer is walking towards the door.

The brunette turns around and glances at her friend before looking down at her feet. "I know. I was just hoping it could be a start." She pauses. "Of an apology." When she looks up she sees Hanna smirking as she reaches for the food.

"It was kind of funny. Well I guess not in the moment, but thinking about it now." Hanna says through a smile.

Spencer chuckles and slightly nods. "I suppose it was. But whenever you're up for it, I sort of need to talk to you about something."

"I'll be right out." Hanna says, pulling the covers up off herself.

Spencer nods and walks out of the room. "Come to my room."

"I wanted to apologize. Like, actually apologize. Not only for going psycho on you last night, but also for all of the bitchy things I've said or done these past few days. I'm totally going to regret it next week when I'm looking back, even more than I am now. This wasn't the way I wanted one of the few weeks we'll get to spend together during the school year to go." Spencer plays with her hands as they sit next to each other on the bed.

"I'm not really that mad. I just want to know why. I mean, am I being mean to Paige? Because if I am, you've got to tell me. I really like her and I'd hate for her to not like me." Hanna asks, her words sounding more frantic as she goes along.

Spencer looks up at her and shakes her head vigorously. "No, Han. It's nothing like that. Paige loves you. I'm kind of worried that she loves you more than she loves me now."

Hanna smiles and nudges her shoulder into Spencer's. "Oh. So you're jealous and you think I'm trying to steal your McCullers away from you."

Spencer scoffs. "No. Not that one at least."

"What do you mean?" Hanna looks at her, confused.

"I guess I should've asked you this before. Would've prevented a lot of chaos."

"What is it?"

Spencer looks away from Hanna and starts nervously playing with her hands again. "Do you like Avery?" She asks softly, not entirely sure which she'd rather hear. That Hanna does like Avery, and now they'll have to deal with the both of them liking the same guy. Or her not liking him, and Spencer feeling like complete shit for treating Hanna like shit for no good reason. Not that if she did, it would be a good reason, but at least there'd be _some_ justifiable reason.

"Of course I do." Hanna says, her voice free from emotion. Spencer looks towards Hanna. Instantly knowing that _that _was not the answer she'd rather hear. Hanna chuckles. "Anyone would be crazy not to. He's amazing, not to mention absolutely gorgeous."

Spencer nods lightly and turns her head to look outside. "Yea, I guess you're right."

"You guess?" She chuckles again. "You _know_ Spencer. I have to admit, I was getting ready to fight you for him."

"You won't have to. He hates me so much that he slept on the couch." Spencer scoffs and runs a hand through her hair.

"Oh come on. We both know he doesn't hate you. Let me finish my speech."

Spencer looks over at her friend somewhat amused. "Your speech?"

Hanna rolls her eyes. "Yes. Now shut up. I _was_ getting ready to fight you for him. But then I saw how you guys look at each other. It's freakishly similar to the way Paige and Emily look at each other, but that doesn't matter. Anyway. Avery and you obviously click. Tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in my bed in New York City and you'll be back in Cali with both McCullers right behind you. Plus, I love my best friend way too much to fight with her over any man, no matter how sexy."

Spencer watches her friend in awe through glossy eyes. "Han." She chokes out.

"Don't start crying. If you start, I'll start, and one of the others will come in here and it'll probably be worse than last night." Hanna smiles.

"I'm so sorry for the way I treated you. God, I've never been so stupid. I don't know what came over me." Spencer puts her face in her hands, frustrated with herself and her foolish emotions.

"I totally get it. Stop beating yourself up over it. Just know that if you guys end up breaking up, I already told Aria I get first dibs." Hanna gets up and takes Spencer's hand. "Let's go see if anyone else has woken up." Spencer shakes her head in amusement and lets the blonde lead her to the living room. When they enter they see Aria and Emily sitting on the couch.

"Where are Paige and Avery?" Hanna asks before Spencer can.

Aria looks towards Hanna. "Good morning to you too."

Spencer smirks and looks to Emily. "Em, you know where they went?"

"Paige said they were going for a run and then getting some coffee or something. Apparently the coffee here is so bad that they'd rather drive an hour to the coffee shop than drink it." Emily says jokingly.

"Yea right. They just want to get away from you three nuts for a few hours." Aria says, her tone not as joking as Emily's. Spencer sits on the loveseat and Hanna sits down next to her. "I see you two are no longer trying to gouge each other's eyes out."

Emily chuckles and the two roll their eyes. "No. We talked it out." Spencer states and glances towards Hanna with a small smile.

The blonde nods. "Spencer agreed to make Avery set me up with one of his hot friends." Spencer chuckles and nods too.

Avery and Paige walk through the door. Paige looks like she's about to pass out and Avery is smirking at her, sweat dripping down both their bodies. Emily gets up quick and snatches a water out of the fridge to give to Paige. "Hey, are you okay?" She looks to Avery with her brows furrowed. "What'd you to do her? Make her run a marathon?"

"Worse." Paige manages to get out. She gladly takes the water and chugs almost the whole bottle down before walking to the couch and plopping down onto it.

Avery laughs. "She thought because I just got shot not too long ago, that she'd have no trouble beating me." He goes over to the fridge and grabs a water before walking towards the room with his stuff. Avery looks at Spencer for a second, then walks through the doorway. "I'm getting in the shower before we go." He says while going and getting his clothes.

"Who runs when they have a hangover, anyway?" Hanna pipes up.

"It's actually good to exercise when you have a hangover. I don't know about running a marathon, but light stuff helps." Spencer says. Trying to focus on anything but the hurt she's feeling from having Avery barely even acknowledge her presence.

Paige gets up once she feels like she's good. "I should change and shower too." She leans over to kiss Emily's forehead. "Thanks."

Emily smiles and nods lightly at her and watches Paige walk to their room.

"You guys made up?" Hanna asks.

"Yea. We still have to talk, but we're good." Emily grins as she replies.

Avery and Paige went off to the coffee shop. They figured the girls wanted some alone time. Truthfully, the siblings wanted the same. "I'm glad you and Emily are good again."

Paige nods, looking out the passenger window. "Me too. But I'm dreading the "talk" Emily wants to have. I mean, I want to have it too. I'm nervous just thinking about it, though."

Avery chuckles. "You've always hated intense conversations. You're quite awkward, you know?"

Paige turns to glare at him. "Thanks for the help, _bro_."

"You know I'm only fucking with you. Be glad you and Emily are at least talking."

"Why didn't you talk to her?"

He shrugs. "Wasn't the time. I don't know if she even wants to talk to me."

She rolls her eyes. "You know she does. She probably just feels like shit."

"I feel like shit. I don't know what I did wrong, but I know I did something to upset her." He says dejectedly.

"You sound like me." Paige chuckles lightly.

Avery glances over at her and nods. "I guess I do." He pauses. "Hey, where does Emily go to school, anyway?"

"Rhode Island." She says, the emotion clear in her tone.

"I've been there once. It's nice."

Paige scoffs. "Three thousand miles away, nice."

"What are you going to do about that?" Avery asks.

She shrugs. "No idea. For all I know, this could just be a weekend thing. Like we just go back to our real lives once we leave."

"Well, at least you know you have a girlfriend when you come to Rosewood." Avery says, trying to make light of it.

"Very funny. I feel dumb for even thinking we could work something out. For even wanting to work something out as desperately as I do, when I just met her."

"You don't even know what Emily wants. Wait until you guys talk about it. You're not dumb for wanting her. It's not like you can help it."

She nods. "You're right. I just have never felt like this before, you know?"

Avery smiles over at his sister and gives her a reassuring nod as they get out of the car. They walk into the coffee shop and order all the coffees. "McCullers!" The siblings hear a voice call out from the back of the shop. Avery looks back and his eyes land on a familiar face. He waves the guy over.

"Travis. This is my sister, Paige. Paige, this is my buddy from Fort Hood." Avery introduces the two and they exchange pleasantries.

"So this is the famous sister of yours you never shut up about?" Travis nudges Paige lightly and smirks at her.

Avery blushes lightly, turning to pick up the coffees the barista was handing him. "Yea." Paige chuckles at her brother. Paige knew her brother loved her, but he usually wasn't very vocal about it. "I didn't think you'd be home yet."

"I finished my tour last month. I'm just home for the holiday." Travis said, walking over to the nearest table and sitting down. The siblings follow. "I heard about what happened to you. You look fine to me."

Avery chuckles. "Yea, I'm fine. Where are you living?"

"My dad's encouraged me to help out with the family business. He just extended it to New York. So he has me taking care of it there."

"Where about?" Paige asks. Avery smirks at Paige, knowing exactly why his sister's asking.

"Manhattan mostly. It's crazy going from Rosewood to New York City. It feels like a totally different wavelength." The siblings nod in agreement. "Wait. What brings you here?" Travis asks, suddenly realizing it was odd.

"Well I'm here because I wanted to surprise Paige. Paige is here with her friends."

"I think everyone is as much your friend as they are mine now." Paige says.

"I thought you told me Paige was going to Stanford?"

Avery nods. "She is. Her roommate invited her to come home with her for Thanksgiving."

"So where are you going to live?" Travis asks.

"Palo Alto." He replies right before Paige's phone starts ringing. She gets up and answers the phone. "We should get going, we've got an hour drive back to where we're staying. Are you busy tonight? You should stop by the cabin. We're supposed to have a fire."

"You definitely should. The girls would love it." Paige says from behind Avery. "They want us to head back now." She says to Avery.

Both guys get up and give each other daps. "Sure, I'll come by."

"Gimme your number so I can text you the address." Avery says as he takes out his phone and hands it to Travis.

Travis looks to Paige. "Hey, who's your roommate? Maybe I know her."

"Spencer Hastings is my roommate."

Travis thinks for a couple seconds. "Melissa Hastings' little sister?"

Paige nods. "You know her?"

"Yea. I went to school with her." He nods. "I'll see you guys later."

Avery and Paige say their goodbyes and walk back to the car with the iced coffees they got for the gang.

The girls liked having the time to talk about their last few months all together, but after a couple hours they got antsy waiting for the McCullers to come back. The four of them became accustomed to their presence within the last few days.

"We should do something exciting today." Hanna says between chews of her bagel.

Spencer chuckles. "Ice-skating wasn't exciting enough for you?"

Hanna rolls her eyes. "Shut up."

"There's not many exciting things to do around here." Emily pipes up.

"Paintball!" Paige says from the doorway, making all four girls scream and jump out of their seats. Paige and her brother laugh hysterically when Hanna flings the uneaten half of her bagel. It hits Aria's face cream cheese side and sticks to her cheek. Aria looks at Hanna furiously and Hanna bites back her smile.

"You've got to be kidding me." Aria huffs out as she takes the bagel off her face and throws it at Hanna.

"Alright, alright. No need for another cat fight." Emily says and picks up the bagel.

"Blame Paige and Avery. If they hadn't scared the shit out of us, my bagel wouldn't have taken flight." Hanna says defensively.

Aria goes to wash her face in the bathroom. "What about paintball?" Spencer asks.

"Paintball is exciting. We should do that today." Paige replies.

"You really want to play paintball with Avery? That's got to be some kind of death wish." Hanna says.

Avery laughs. "You can wear protective gear. Paintballs don't hurt that much."

"I'll only play with you if you like, I don't know. Only use one hand or something." Hanna says.

"I've always wanted to play paintball. I could never convince these three to go with me though. They were too scared" Spencer says, looking at Avery.

"I'd be scared to play with you, too." Avery teases. Spencer smiles at him. Normally she'd defend herself, but right now she's just glad he was speaking to her. "We spotted a place about a half an hour away, we could go there."

"We're all ready. Want to go now? It should be open now, right?" Spence asks.

Avery nods and hands out the coffees. "Everyone wants to go?" He asks the group, all of them standing in the living room. They all nod and get their stuff before piling into the car.

All of them had a surprisingly great time. After they all got over how much it stung whenever you got hit, they managed to have some fun, fair games. For the first hour or so no one else was playing, but later on some high schoolers started coming in; making things a bit more interesting.

"That was actually really fun." Hanna says while they're all taking off their masks and vests.

"You weren't saying that when you were crying after you got shot in the ass." Paige jokes. The rest laugh along.

"Do you people ever get tired of making fun of me? At least I wasn't whining because of the team I was on." Hanna retorts.

Avery chuckles as Paige looks irritated. "You'd be whining too if you were on the opposite team as Sasquatch."

"Leave Sasquatch out of this, he took a lot of balls for me and Hanna." Aria said.

"I don't take _balls_ for anyone." Avery says and Aria rolls her eyes.

"I'm hungry. We should go to the grille and get something to eat before we go to the market." Spencer says.

They get back to the cabin after stopping at the grille and market to get stuff to make for tonight. The six of them are hanging out on the deck in the back, basking in the beautiful weather they're grateful to be having in the last few days of November.

Avery gets up to go get the group some drinks. Spencer follows him a minute later, figuring it was as good a time as ever to talk. "Avery." She says as she sits down on one of the stools.

He turns from the fridge to face her. "_Spencer_." He says in a sarcastic tone.

She smirks and rolls her eyes. "We should talk."

"I thought that's what we were doing?"

Spencer huffs. "You know what I mean."

He nods and picks up the drinks. "I'll be right back." Once he brings the girls the drinks, he comes back in and sits next to Spencer. "I'm sorry. For whatever I did that upset you."

She looks at him like he has three heads. "Why are you apologizing? I'm the one who flipped out. On you and my best friend. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"No. There was obviously something bothering you."

"Yea. But it was my own jealously and insecurity. Not you." She looks away ashamed. "I'm sorry. For the way I acted. It was foolish."

He shrugs. "To be fair, you were heavily drunk." He says and chuckles lightly.

Spencer shakes her head. "Even when I wasn't. I treated Hanna like crap because I thought she liked you. There's no excuse for that."

"Hey, I understand. I mean if you didn't fight Hanna, I'm sure Emily would've done it for you. And I'm sure if I thought someone was competition, I'd be jealous too." Avery reassures her as he puts his hand on her thigh. "It's over and done with. I was just afraid you were actually mad at me."

"You'll sleep in the bed tonight, then?" Spencer asks and looks over at him hopefully.

He chuckles and kisses her forehead before getting up and offering his hand. "Yea."

"When are we going to eat?!" Hanna asks as she lounges on one of the chairs.

Paige chuckles from the chair next to her. "We just ate like two hours ago."

"I don't care. Those steaks are calling my name."

Emily comes over and sits on Paige's lap. "I agree. You better be as good at grilling as you say you are." She looks over her shoulder at Paige.

She raises her eyebrows at Emily. "Or what?"

Emily turns so they're facing. "You did not just "or what" me." She says seriously.

Paige taps her finger on her chin and looks up before nodding. "I believe I did." Emily looks at her through squinted eyes and turns away. "Oh come on." Paige says after realizing she's just been shunned. She wraps her arm around Emily's waist and tries to pull the girl down onto her. Emily continues to ignore her. "Emily." Paige sighs. "Em, I'm sorry. You know I was just kidding."

Emily's stomach drops when she hears Paige use her nickname. Her act instantly crumbles. She grins and moves to kiss the girl so fast that she surprises her. When she pulls back, she sees Paige smirking. "I'm serious about grilling though. I take my steak medium rare." She says as she places another chaste kiss on those soft lips.

"Gross, Em. That's like eating it alive." Hanna throws in.

Paige chuckles. "It is kind of gross. But your wish is my command." Emily smiles widely and kisses her again before laying down on top of her.

"This steak is amazing, Paige." Emily says. Everyone else nods in agreement, besides Aria of course.

"Well I don't know what the steak tastes like, but the veggies are outstanding." Aria adds.

"Thanks, guys. But I couldn't have done it without Hanna. She did season them." Paige smirks at the blonde.

They hear a truck come down the path and the four girls look at each other confused. "Who's that?" Aria asks.

Avery gets up from his seat. "Totally forgot to tell you guys I told my buddy to come by for the fire tonight." He walks through the sliding door and goes to open the front door for his friend. When he opens the door he sees Travis and a guy he's never met before. They nod at each other and Avery steps out of the way so they can walk in. The three walk onto the deck.

"Jake?" Aria says as she gets up excitedly to hug and kiss him. "How'd you know where I was?"

"Travis told me he was coming to Spencer Hastings' cabin. I remembered you telling me you were going to a cabin and wouldn't have great service. Figured this was the one." He says and waves to the rest of the girls.

"Travis Hobbs. You were friends with my sister, weren't you?" Spencer asks.

He nods. "I was."

"How do you two know each other?" She points between him and Avery.

"We were both stationed at Fort Hood." He replies and sits down in the chair Avery just pulled up next to Hanna.

"Small world. It seems like we were all bound to meet some time." Avery says.

"Jake, this is Avery and Paige. They're siblings. Paige is Spencer's roommate." Aria introduces them.

"She looked familiar. Your Instagram is swamped with you two." Jake says jokingly.

They all laugh and Avery gets the leftover steaks for the guys and gives it to them. "Hanna and Emily." Avery points to each girl for Travis. "I'm sure you know the other two." Travis nods.

Once they all finished eating they gathered around the fire pit. Spencer found a radio in one of the closets and put it on the ground near them. After playing around with the stations she found one everyone agreed on.

"We should play Wink Murder! I read it on Pinterest and I've been wanting to play it ever since." Hanna says excitedly.

"Well do you remember how to play?" Emily asks.

Hanna thinks for a second. "Yea. Umm. I sort of forgot."

The group laughs. "I think I've played that before. Is that the one where you have a detective and murderer?" Travis says.

She nods fast. "Yes. You know how to play? Please tell me you do."

"I do. We have to pick a host, and the only thing they do is choose a murderer and detective. We all close our eyes and the host taps the detective's head once and the murderer's twice. The detective sits in the middle and has to figure out who the murderer is. The murderer murders players by winking at them, and the victims are supposed to die dramatically. The detective gets three guesses, if they don't guess correctly then they stay as the detective for the next round, if they do then they become the host." Travis explains.

"Gotcha. Spencer should be the host first." Emily says.

She nods and they close their eyes. She chooses the people. "Open up." They all open their eyes and Hanna mumbles as she goes to the middle. Jake falls to the ground and immediately after, Paige does the same. Hanna whips her head around and eyes everyone suspiciously. Aria smirks under pressure. "Aria!" Hanna yells.

"Nope. Two more guesses." Spencer says.

Hanna huffs and continues eyeing everyone. Emily laughs when Hanna gives her an irritated look. "Emily." Aria drops dead and while Hanna's watching her dramatics, so does Emily.

"One more." Spencer announces.

"I know, Spencer." Hanna says in an annoyed tone. She looks to Travis and Avery intensely. They look over at each other and smile. Hanna fails her arms around, frustrated. "I don't know!" She stares down Avery. "Av…" Right when she starts saying his name, he looks to Travis and falls back. "…ery." Hanna gets up. "Fuck. That wasn't fair!"

The group laughs as they get up and Spencer sits down on the log next to Avery. "You can be the host, Han." Spencer says.

After many more murders, they all decide it's time for s'mores. Spencer runs in the house to get the stuff and picks up the sticks Paige and Emily picked the day before off the deck.

"It sucks knowing we all have to go home tomorrow." Spencer says once they all get their sticks and marshmallows.

"I know. But at least it's only a few weeks until we come back. Then we'll have a month here." Emily says.

"You guys do. Paige and I get out a week before you guys and only have three weeks of vacation. So we'll only be here for two weeks." Spencer says disappointedly.

"That's stupid. You guys work so much more, you should have an even longer break than we do." Hanna proclaims.

Spencer and Paige chuckle. "That's not how it works, Han." Paige says.

"Where do you go to school?" Travis asks, turning to Hanna.

She smiles at him. The whole night they've been cheesing back and forth. "NYU."

"Wow. For what?" He asks, impressed.

"Journalism. I want to be a publicist. That's the closest major I could get there. I was set on going to school in New York City." She proudly explains.

He nods and smiles at her. "I can see you being a publicist. I'm sure you'll be a great one."

"Do you still live in Rosewood?"

Travis shakes his head. "No. I live in New York City."

She looks at him, shocked. "You're lying."

He laughs. "I'm not. Why? Can't picture me living in the Big Apple?"

She shakes her head. "No, I can't. But I'm glad you do. Now I actually know someone interesting there. I feel like a lot of them try way too hard. And a lot of them are into drama and stuff. I basically fall asleep to the girls next door belting out Celine Dion every night."

He chuckles and nods. "I know what you're talking about."

"Where do you live?"

"Near Juilliard."

She laughs. "That must be fun. Talk about drama."

"Exactly." He smiles at her and they tune into the conversation going on amongst the group.

"Wanna go swimming again?" Avery looks to Emily.

She squints her eyes at him. "Don't even think about it."

"She will shun you, Avery." Paige speaks up.

Hanna looks to Aria. "What are they fighting about?"

Aria shrugs. "Something about some restaurants in Austin."

"La is better than Franklin. Point blank." Avery claims.

Emily shakes her head.

"I'm going to have to agree with Emily." Travis says.

Avery looks to his friend. Emily smiles and dramatically points her hand toward Travis. "See."

"Paige. Just say your vote." Avery pleads.

Paige shakes her head vigorously. "No way. Being shunned is not something I enjoy from her."

"Sounds like Paige is whipped." Hanna says, wanting in on the conversation.

The rest of the group laughs as Paige eyes Hanna and Emily hides her face in Paige's shoulder, embarrassed.

Around two, Hanna's falling asleep on Travis' shoulder and Paige is knocked out with her chin on Emily's. Jake comes over to Travis. "You want to get going?"

Travis nods. "Hey, I have to go." He whispers to Hanna. She lifts her head from his shoulder and nods sleepily at him. "Come on, I'll walk you to your bed." She takes his hand and they walk into the house. He laughs when Hanna trips over her own foot and almost lands into the wall. They get to the doorway to the bedroom and she pulls him in for a hug. Which he gladly returns. "Goodnight. I had a really fun time with you and your friends."

"I had a good time too. Night." She smiles at him with glossy eyes and walks into the room. She starts shutting the door until she hears his voice again.

"Hanna?"

"Yea?"

"Maybe we could meet up sometime? In the city I mean." He asks nervously.

"I'll tell Avery to give you my number in the morning." She replies.

"Awesome. Sleep well."

She smiles as she cranes her neck around the door. "Drive safe, Travis."

He nods and walks back outside to say goodbye to everyone else.

"It was great to see you, man. Anytime you want to come to California, just let me know." Avery says.

Travis nods. "Definitely. It was nice officially meeting all of you." He looks to the girls.

They all bid their goodbyes and he and Jake leave.

"Travis and Hanna are going to be cute." Emily says.

"Yea. He's sweet." Spencer agrees. "You know Paige is asleep, right?" Spencer says in an amused tone. Emily's sitting on Paige's lap and Paige has her arms around her waist with her chin on her shoulder.

Emily chuckles and kisses Paige's temple. "She's adorable."

"Have you guys talked yet?" Spencer asks.

Emily shakes her head. "I guess we'll have to tomorrow, though."

"I told you you should have come with me to California."

"Don't remind me." She tries to get up but Paige just tightens her hold. "Looks like I'm not going anywhere soon."

Avery gets up and flicks the back of Paige's neck. She lets go of Emily, but doesn't wake up.

Emily gets up and looks at Avery with a confused expression. "What'd you just do?"

"I'd always have to do that in order for her to let me go whenever she slept in my room. It doesn't wake her up anymore." Avery explains as he goes to pick her up.

"Why don't we just wake her up?"

"Once she falls asleep sitting up, she's not waking up until she wants to."

Emily and Spencer look at each other and laugh. "You guys are very weird."

"We should talk." Emily says when she feels Paige waking up.

Paige rubs the sleep out of her eyes and stretches. She opens one eye to look at Emily. "Morning, gorgeous."

Emily blushes and shakes her head with a smile. "Sorry."

Paige chuckles. "Don't be. What's up?"

"What are we doing?" Emily asks apprehensively.

Paige looks around the room and then at their tangled limbs. "Cuddling, apparently." Emily rolls her eyes and Paige smirks. "What do you want to do?" In a slightly more serious tone.

"You tell me."

"Well, I _want_ to move to Rhode Island just so we don't have to leave each other." Paige blushes and looks away from Emily. "Is that too blunt? Do you think I'm crazy? For wanting that so soon."

Emily puts a gentle hand on Paige's cheek. Paige turns to look into Emily's eyes. "Yes." Emily whispers before leaning in to place a passionate kiss on her lips. "But I like it." She says as she pulls away.

"What about you?" Paige asks after a moment.

Emily shrugs. "I want that too. But realistically that's not going to happy any time soon."

Paige nods, understanding but still disappointed. "Yea. Truthfully, this" She points between Emily and herself. "has been happening way too fast. And I do like it, but at the same time it's overwhelming. I don't want to jump the gun. As much as I don't want to, I feel like it would be best if we sort of took a step back once we go back to reality tomorrow. I'm not saying we shouldn't talk, but I guess not decide anything definite."

Emily nods in agreement. "I'm glad you said it." They shift closer and Emily lays her head on Paige's chest. "It'll suck to go back to being all lonely again." Paige sighs and kisses the top of her head. "Spencer said you and her get out a week before us next month, right?" Paige nods. "You two should come to Bryant. My roommates are leaving a week early." Emily feels Paige stiffen. "Never mind. It was a dumb question, you just said we should take a step back and here I am telling you to stay with me."

Paige shakes her head. "No, it wasn't dumb. I'll ask Spencer if she wants to. I was just shocked you asked me, is all." Emily lifts her head from her chest and looks up to Paige with a wide smile. "Your smile will be the death of me." Emily dips her head and Paige lifts her chin up to kiss her.

"Today sucks." Hanna sulks from the couch.

"Agreed." Aria says as she gets up and goes to pack her stuff. "We should start packing though. I think you guys are leaving Rosewood around twelve."

"I hate packing." Hanna says and follows Aria to the room.

"You guys haven't even packed yet? I did that last night." Spencer says, coming out of her room.

Hanna rolls her eyes. "Not everyone is always as prepared as you are, Spence."

"Well once you guys are done, just put your stuff in the trunk."

Emily and Paige come out of their room, suitcases in toe. "I can't believe we're actually driving Hanna back to her dorm. You know we're going to have to drive another hour to JFK, right?" Emily says to Paige as they walk their stuff out to the car.

"Yea. I like driving, though." Paige replies.

Emily scoffs and heaves her suitcase into the trunk. "You mean sitting in traffic?"

Paige shrugs and does the same. "I don't mind."

"What time is your flight?"

"Five-ish I think. Yours?"

"Same." They both walk in and the rest of them are sitting in the living room.

"Ready to go?" Spencer asks the group. Everyone gets up and squeezes into the car.

They all mess around and try to have the best last hour with everyone that they can before dropping Aria off at her house since she's the only one who stayed in Rosewood. After popping in and seeing the Montgomery's briefly, they head to Spencer's house to say goodbye to them. Once they make it to Hanna's school, she forces them to all get out and see her dorm, because it's apparently "gorgeous and smells amazing." They had made it there in record time, so the rest of them didn't really mind.

"I feel like trapping all of you in my closet so you can't leave." Hanna states as she pulls each of them in for a hug.

"It won't be that long until we see each other." Emily says and the rest agree.

Hanna looks to Avery with a serious look and pointed finger. "You better take care of my Spencer and Paige. Or else I'll come to California and kick your ass."

Avery chuckles and nods. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Bye, Han. We'll call when we land." Spencer says while reluctantly walking out of the dorm.

The drive to the airport was fairly silent, the air in the car seemed to get gloomier every time someone left.

"Avery, how are you getting your car to California? I heard that getting it shipped is kind of sketchy." Emily asks.

"Oh, I'm driving back. I've always wanted to drive cross country." He replies.

Paige looks over at her brother. "What? I thought you were flying with us?"

He shakes his head. "No."

"You suck. You know I want to do that too." Paige crosses her arms and pouts.

He chuckles. "We could do it while you're on vacation."

"We totally should. All of us. We could drive from Rosewood back to Stanford with the girls and they could just take a flight back later on since they have a longer vacation." Spencer suggests.

"That reminds me. I asked Paige if you two wanted to come to Rhode Island the first week of your vacation since my roommates will be gone." Emily asks.

"Really? Awesome. Yea, we'll come." Spencer replies instantly.

"We're here." Avery says and parks in front. He gets out and takes their luggage out of the car.

"You're an ass for not telling us beforehand." Paige says to her brother.

"You'll see me in a few days, don't start crying." He teases and pulls his sister in for a hug.

Emily hugs him next. "You could come too if you want, I live in an apartment on campus so the place is huge."

"Sure thing." He smiles at her as he hugs Spencer. She clings onto him for dear life until Paige takes her by the arm gently.

"We have to go, Spence. We still have to go through security." Paige says.

Spencer nods and reluctantly lets go. "See you soon." She smiles up at him and he nods before kissing her forehead.

"See you soon." He goes to walk back into his car before Spencer calls his name and he looks up to see her walking back to him. "Did you forget something?"

She nods and steps closer to him. "Yes." Spencer leans up and kisses him on the lips. It happened so fast that once he actually realized she kissed him, he was watching her walk away from him. She looked back and smiled before catching up with Paige and Emily.

"Finally." Emily teases after watching the scene play out. Spencer blushes and walks up to the line. It takes them about a half an hour before they get to their gate. Emily's flight was boarding around fifteen minutes after Spencer and Paige's so she went wait with them. When they heard over the intercom that their flight was boarding now, they all got up from their seats and walked towards the lady checking the tickets.

"I guess I'll see you guys in two weeks?" Emily asks.

Paige and Spencer nod. "Definitely. I can't wait to be there." Spencer says and hugs Emily goodbye.

Emily looks to Paige and half smiles, wrapping her arms around the girl's neck and pulling her in for a kiss. Paige happily reciprocates and neither girl pulls away until they hear the same announcement. Paige takes Emily's hand to her lips and presses a kiss to it before starting to walk away. Emily smiles at the gesture and holds the girl's hand until she's too far away and their hands drop.

**Figured it was time to end the trip. Sorry for the obnoxiously long update. Hope you guys like it. :) **


End file.
